First Time Canning!

We took a canning class back in early June and we finally got everything set up to can at our house.  We found out in the class that it's not recommended to use canners on a ceramic top stoves because the canners are usually bigger than the burner space and since they get so hot for so long it can crack or damage the ceramic tops.  Since we just bought our stove last year when we moved into our house we were not willing to risk damaging it!  Chad built a table for our deck and we bought a portable gas cooktop that we can connect to propane tanks.  Once we had our cooktop and our canners ready we were finally ready to can!  For our first project we bought 2 boxes of canning tomatoes at the farmer's market.  Since this was our first time canning we learned a few things to make things easier.  Tomatoes are a LOT of work to prepare for canning - the actual canning part is pretty easy.  We did one box and canned one day and then prepared the second box one evening after work and then did the canning the next day after work so it wasn't so much work in one day/evening.  I also think something like green beans would be MUCH easier.  Overall, I think it went pretty well.  It was a little stressful that first day, but we got the hang of it and in the grand scheme of things 2 days of work for a fall/winter supply of fresh, farmer's market tomatoes is definitely worth it!  Here are a few pictures from our first time canning:

Jimmy Eat World Concert

As an early birthday present, I got to go see Jimmy Eat World play on August 13, 2013 at the Fillmore.  Jimmy Eat World is one of my all-time favorite bands and this concert was my 3rd time seeing them play.  I really like the Fillmore venue because it's roomy without being huge and you can see the stage from pretty much anywhere in the building.  We got there at just the right time too - we missed the opening band and got there about 20 minutes before Jimmy Eat World came on.  They played for almost 2 hours too - it was GREAT!  It was such a great early birthday present for me, especially since Chad is not a huge Jimmy Eat World fan.  Here are some pictures from the concert:

August 2013 Garden Pictures

Our garden didn't produce as much as we would have liked this summer, but it's our first year having one at our new house so it's still a learning experience.  By August our okra FINALLY started growing more and producing, so that's great because okra is my favorite thing we grow!  Also, our tomato plants got a VERY late start, but they are finally starting to produce a little too.  Here are some pictures of our garden in August:

July Birthdays

Chad and my brother Fielding both have birthdays in July.  This year we decided to grill out at our house instead of going out to eat.  I also decided to make them camo cupcakes thanks to Pinterest for the idea!  Since they are both into hunting I thought it would be cute to make camo cupcakes.  It was definitely a little bit of work since you had to divide the batter and icing into batches and color them with food coloring, but they came out really well.  Here are a few pictures from the July birthday cookout and the camo cupcakes:

New Tattoo!

I've been wanting to get a new tattoo for awhile, so I decided that was what I wanted as my anniversary gift this year.  I wasn't able to schedule it until July even though our anniversary is in April.  I really wanted to get the words "perfect in weakness" which is part of a line from a Flyleaf song, but also a paraphrase of the Bible verse II Corinthians 12:9 which says "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." This is one of my favorite Bible verses because anytime I feel like I'm not good enough or something is "wrong" with me I am reminded that it's because of these weaknesses that God can shine through in my life.  I LOVE the tattoo!  My tattoo artist at Immortal Images, Chris, did such a great job with the idea I had.  I am so happy with it and can't wait to get more - I'm even contemplating doing a full sleeve... Here are a few pictures of me getting my newest tattoo:

Outline done.

The finished tattoo!

4th of July and a Birthday Party

One of my favorite traditions has become the Harrisburg 4th of July celebrations.  For the past 7 years at least we've been meeting up with some of our good friends at the 4th of July parade.  This year it was overcast and drizzled off and on during the parade, but that meant it wasn't super hot at least.  Here are the pictures from this year's 4th of July parade:




Our friends Becca and Jason's children, Braden and Katie, have birthdays in June and July and they usually have a joint party for them. Since we always hang out with them for 4th of July too they decided to have the joint birthday party on the 4th of July this year. We could also watch the Harrisburg fireworks from their house too which was really nice. Here are the pictures from Braden and Katie's birthday party:

June Super Doubles at Harris Teeter

At the end of June Harris Teeter had Super Doubles (doubling coupons of $1 and up).  Usually Super Doubles isn't great for me, I prefer Triples (triple coupons up to $.99), but this time it worked out for me.  I SAVED $57.23 and spent $51.13 and got all this:

Summer Garden and Cat Pictures

Here are some pictures from our garden in mid-Summer and some cat pictures:

A Wedding and a Vacation

One of Chad's oldest friends got married this summer.  Their wedding was the day before we left for vacation, so we were very glad to get to be there for their big day.  Here are some pictures from Butch & Cissy's wedding:

We love going to Wrightsville Beach for vacation and I was really looking forward to enjoying the beach this summer. But, unfortunately we had a pretty bad vacation this year and ended up coming home early.  The place where we stay (and where my family has been staying for almost 20 years) decided to do work to the building in the middle of peak beach season.  After 4 days of drilling on the building (2 of those days were on our room balcony!) we decided to leave early and come home.  Also, Chad somehow hurt his neck, so I couldn't keep going out on the beach and hanging out knowing that he's hurting.  Even though I was VERY disappointed with the place we stay, the bright side was we got some extra time off at home which was nice too.  But, I still LOVE the beach and we did get to spend some time on the beach even with our shortened trip.  Here are the pictures from our shortened vacation:

Canning Class

Chad & I have been interested in canning for awhile now.  We found out that most county extension offices offer the classes for a VERY reasonable price.  The Union Co. extension office ended up offering a class on a day and time that worked for us.  We also invited another couple we're friends with who are also interested in canning, Mike and Leanda.  Leanda and I work together currently and Mike and I have worked together in the past.  It was a lot of fun to get to take the class with another couple who's also interested in a lot of the things Chad & I are interested in.  The class had a LOT of information, but the instructor was great and she made it really interesting and fun.  Here are a few pictures from our canning class:

Barbee Farm Tour May 11, 2013

We LOVE our local farmer's market and are very glad that one of the locations near us is year-round.  We go just about every weekend and even when I have to work on a weekend Chad will go for us.  During the winter months the farmer's market slows down and there are only a few die-hard farmers that come throughout the winter.  Because we were there almost every week, we got to know a few of the farmers a little better.  One of the farms that we buy a lot of our vegetables from is Barbee Farms.  This May they had a tour of their farm that was open to any and all of their customers.  We definitely wanted to be there to continue to show our support to their farm, but also because you get to really see where this food comes from.  When you buy food in a grocery store you have no idea who grew it, picked it, packaged it, etc.  Plus, there was free all-you-can-eat homemade ice cream!  Here are our pictures from the Barbee Farm tour:

Spring Changes at Our New House

One of the things we were most excited about with our new house was the fact that we could have a much bigger garden.  Throughout the winter Chad was working on our garden area - laying down cardboard to kill the grass, building the raised beds, putting up a fence, etc.  So, here are some pictures of our new garden:



Chad also installed a new ceiling fan for our bedroom. Here are some pictures of the installation and our new fan:

We also bought some patriotic decorations for our new house for Memorial Day and the 4th of July:

High School and College Pictures

I love looking through old pictures and so I decided to scan a bunch of pictures from high school and early college.  It was so much fun looking through all those pictures and remembering all the good times with friends.  Here are some of the high school and early college pictures I scanned recently:


Here are some pictures from my high school prom and graduation



These are pictures from the three years that I went with friends to the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois. Cornerstone is a Christian music festival that lasts a week and most people camp out and go to concerts throughout the afternoon and evenings. Going to Cornerstone those three summers were some of my favorite memories! We saw SO many bands and had such a good time hanging out with great friends. My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures and didn't keep a list of all the bands we saw.



These are some pictures from early college. My best friend Nicole and I basically spent all our time together at school and outside school. Then of course I met Chad in 1999 and the rest is our history together!

More Childhood Pictures

For Mother's Day this year I was going through some old family photos looking for one of me and my Mom to make my profile picture on Facebook.  Of course every time I go through old photos I end up with a pile I want to scan and add on Facebook and this blog.  Here are some more childhood family photos:

Sea Shell Wreath

One of my goals for 2013 is to work on craft projects more.  I have a great space for sewing and doing crafts set up in our new house, but I need to carve out more time for things like this.  I got the idea for this wreath from an L.L. Bean home catalog - this is a much more simplified version, but I like simple designs.  It was pretty easy to make this wreath and it all cost less than $15!  Here is the sea shell wreath I made:

Josh & Kelley's Wedding Weekend

Chad's good friend Josh got married on April 27, 2013.  While we were obviously happy for Josh and Kelley and were excited for their wedding we also got to see a lot of old friends we don't see regularly anymore.  I was especially excited to see Jame and Hamilton, two of Chad's friends from college that we rarely see.  Jame was one of the pastors who married us and Josh's wedding fell on the same weekend as our 13 year wedding anniversary.  It was a great weekend of catching up with old friends, celebrating Josh & Kelley's wedding, and just overall a great time.  I told one of our friends at the wedding that the whole weekend was like a family reunion - in the best sense!  Here are some pictures from the wedding weekend:

Spring Cat Pictures

Here are some more cat pictures from this spring!

Sandy and Roxy love to snuggle together.

Roxy threw up on the comforter so I had to wash the edge.  Before I could put it back on the bed Sandy decided it would be a good place for her to nap!

Roxy sleeping beside me on the couch.

A close up of Roxy sleeping.

Promoting Libraries and Summer Reading

Starting last year the library system where I work did a photo shoot for staff to help promote Summer Reading.  I didn't participate last year, but this year I decided I would.  I wanted to choose a very meaningful book too, so I chose The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, which I've written about before on this blog about how reading that book was a lightbulb moment for me.  And as much as I love Michael Pollan, I really wanted to use one of Joel Salatin's books especially since I got to meet him last year, but my library system doesn't own his books and since this photo shoot was to promote our libraries I went with Michael Pollan.  So, wherever you live support your local libraries and READ!

More Coupon Savings

In the month of April I scored some really good coupon savings on two different occasions.  One week there were just some really good sales going on at both of the grocery stores where I shop so I went out after dinner to both grocery stores to take advantage of all the deals with my coupons and on that trip going to two grocery stores I spent a total of $53.74 and SAVED $54.65 with my best deal being two bottles of All detergent for $1.27 each!

Later in the month, Harris Teeter offered triple coupons.  I didn't get a lot of great deals because their sales didn't match up with coupons as much, but I did get everything in the picture below for $23 and SAVED $25!  My goal for 2013 is to break $2000 in savings by shopping sales and using coupons, so I'm trying extra hard to get the best deals I can!

More Animal Friends

I love seeing all the wildlife at our new house!  Recently Chad was sitting on our deck in the morning when he noticed a box turtle making it's way through our yard.  So, of course I had to run out and get a few pictures of it before I left for work that day!  The turtle had walked up to the fence of our garden and the next day Chad noticed he was inside the garden area so he took him back out to the yard near the woods.  Here are the pictures of our turtle friend:

Wicked the Musical

Chad got me tickets to see the musical Wicked for Christmas this year.  We got to go in March and it was definitely worth seeing!  I read the book probably 7 or 8 years ago and I remembered really liking it and since it had been so long since I read it I decided to read it again before we saw the musical.  But, I could barely force myself to get through it the second time.  After I finally finished it I thought, "why did I like this book again?"  But, I knew the musical was only loosely based on the book and that's a good thing because the book is very dark and violent with a LOT of political intrigue and details.  And after re-reading the book and seeing the musical soon after I can definitely say it is very, very loosely based on the book.  There were a few aspects that were wildly different in the musical than the book that I didn't like.  But, overall the musical was good and the actors did a phenomenal job.  Chad & I both very much enjoyed it and it gave us a reason to dress up too!  Here are some pictures of us getting ready to go see Wicked:

February Super Doubles at Harris Teeter

I love couponing and so I'm always excited when Harris Teeter offers triple coupons or super doubles.  I usually save more when they have triples, but this time I did pretty good with super doubles.  I got all the items in the picture for $32.25 and SAVED $39.90!

February 16, 2013 Snow Day

We got a surprise snow day right after Valentine's Day this year!  On Saturday it started out snowing, but not sticking to the ground and Chad checked the weather report and they were calling for it to change to rain later in the day.  We were out running errands and around 3:30 it really started snowing hard and sticking to the ground.  As we were driving home everything was just blanketed in snow - it was so beautiful.  When we got home we immediately went out in our neighborhood to take pictures and enjoy the unexpected snow.  It was so nice and I wish it would have snowed more, but by the next day the sun was out and it was a little warmer so all the snow was pretty much gone by lunchtime.  It was nice while it lasted though!  Here are our pictures from the snow day:

January 2013 Animal Pictures

We've seen so many birds and animals at our new house, but it's hard to get pictures - either we don't have a camera handy or they are so fast you don't even have time to take a picture.  But the first week in January a huge hawk came and hung out in a tree in our backyard for close to 30 minutes before he flew back into the woods.  I was so excited to get some good pictures!




Here are a few cat pictures of Sandy and Roxy to start off the new year! We got them a new toy bin and so far Roxy has enjoyed getting inside the bin and pulling ALL the toys out!

Bigger is NOT Always Better

I just finished reading this book Greenhorns: the next generation of American farmers edited by Zoe Bradbury, Severine von Tscharner Fleming, and Paula Manalo.  The book is a collection of essays written by new farmers.  The book overall was very interesting and it makes me happy to know that this is only a sampling of all the new people who are choosing to be farmers despite the many obstacles they face.  One essay in particular really jumped out at me.  Samuel Anderson is the livestock coordinator at the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project in Massachusetts.  The essay describes him going to the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta, GA.  Because of the growing problem of small farms trying to find access to local and small-scale slaughterhouses, Anderson was working with mobile poultry-processing units that his organization trained farmers to use, so they could kill and process their own poultry for sale at local markets. 

"It's a foregone conclusion in the big poultry industry that, as the University of Georgia's broiler information web page bluntly puts it, 'Having an independent broiler-growing operation is no longer feasible.' In fact, according to the site, there is actually no such thing as an independent chicken farmer anymore; 'approximately 99 percent of all broilers are produced under contract, with the remaining production occurring on integrator-owned farms [those that are owned by the same vertically integrated company that owns every stage of production, including the processing facility and the retail brand].' The argument is that small-scale production can't compete with the low prices of the ultra-efficient industrial operations...As it turns out...there are still independent chicken farmers in the world, and they've proved that it can pencil out. In 2010, three Massachusetts producers utilized a mobile poultry-processing unit to legally process their chickens. Each raised, hand-processed, and sold between eight hundred and twelve hundred, all grown on pasture. Through farmers' markets, restaurants, and presales directly to consumers, these birds fetched from four dollars and fifty cents to six dollars per pound. Some of those chickens topped thirty dollars each. Compare that to contract chicken farmers. They get paid between 3.8 and 4.6 cents per pound of live weight. That means that a particularly efficient producer might gross a whopping twenty-five cents for each bird. During the ten to fifteen years it takes a contract producer to pay off the hundred thousand dollars in up-front cost of building and outfitting a poultry house that meets Tyson's or Perdue's standards, the farmer needs to grow well over a hundred thousand birds a year just to net five thousand dollars. The savvier independent chicken farmers are making a hundred and twenty times more than the gross per-bird return of a contract broiler. One of these producers calculated her annual net return at somewhere around ten thousand dollars - raising fewer than 1 percent of the birds it would take a contract grower to get there." (p. 149-151)

I love how the University of Georgia is basically telling future or current farmers that it is impossible to be an independent chicken farmer and basically go big or go home - when I'm sure they are NOT telling them they will make a whopping quarter ($.25 cents) per chicken they raise commercially and they will have to take on a HUGE amount of debt to get started.  This book and many other local, small farmers are proving this wrong every day.  

This reminded me of what Joel Salatin says in The Omnivore's Dilemma when he compares the industrial food system to the Protestant Reformation.  When people could read the Bible for themselves they didn't need a priest or someone else to tell them what to do or how to live - they could read and interpret Scripture for themselves.  They didn't try to outlaw Catholicism or close down all the Catholic churches - they just chose to go a different way for themselves.  It's the same way with the industrialized food system - we don't need more laws to ban chemicals or outlaw non-organic food.  We vote with our fork and our money three times a day with what we choose to eat and if we want we can opt out of the industrialized food industry.  That analogy in The Omnivore's Dilemma was really a light-bulb moment for me - I clearly saw how I could make the changes in my life that would eliminate dependence on the industrial food industry.  I definitely think that despite the contrary claims of the industrial food system - bigger is NOT better when it comes to food.

One last quote from the book I loved "The best things in life - growing your own food, living and working with your neighbors, being outside in an open space - are being lost." (p. 113)

Top 10 Books of 2012

So, in 2012 I read 93 books!  Here are my top 10 picks for 2012:

Fiction

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson
Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
Freeman by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Non-Fiction

Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook
Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman
Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson
Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin
My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss

2012 Coupon Savings

I've been keeping track of how much we save by using coupons and shopping sales.  For the past year or two I've tried to be more strategic with how I use coupons to get the best deals and save the most money.  Now the way I shop has completely changed.  Instead of making a list of what we need each week and buying it whether it's on sale or not I mostly buy only what is on sale and/or what I have coupons for - preferably combining sales with my coupons.  Then I plan meals around staples that we already have on hand.  It took me a little while to transition to this way of shopping, but it's MUCH easier.  I get all of our meat and most of our produce from the Farmer's Market and buy staples/canned goods/etc. around sales and coupons.  Of course sometimes I still have to stop by the store for something specific, but overall this is how I shop now and I really think it's making a difference with how much money we save.

So, in 2012 I saved $1855.19 by using coupons!  That is $258 MORE than in 2011!  My goal for 2013 is to save at least $2000.

Our Christmas Card photo

We don't normally do photos for our Christmas cards because I LOVE Christmas cards and enjoy finding unique Christmas cards to send out.  So this year because I wanted distant family and friends to see the pictures of our new house we created a photo collage to include with our Christmas cards.  This was the main picture and it just sums up how we feel about our new house:

Here are some more pictures of the cats this Christmas:

Our Christmas

Chad & I were very excited about spending Christmas in our new house.  Here are pictures of us opening our gifts from each other and pictures of the cats "opening" the gifts in their stockings.  Usually we try to get a video of the cats playing with their Christmas gifts, but this year we didn't get a video.  

The cats enjoying their Christmas gifts

Christmas With Our Families

This year I was so thankful to get to spend Christmas with my Mom.  We haven't spent Christmas together since she moved to Hawaii in 2005.  Unfortunately my step-father Mike wasn't able to come with my Mom for Christmas in NC, but we were able to Skype with him on Christmas Day so we could watch him open his gifts from us.  And we were able to give him a virtual tour of our new house via Skype too!  Because my Mom was here for Christmas we celebrated with Chad's family a little early.  My other grandmother recently had to move into an assisted living facility so she and my Dad weren't able to come for Christmas this year since she was still settling into her new home.  Here are some pictures from our Christmas celebrations with our families:


Here are the pictures of our Christmas with Chad's family



While my Mom was in town we took a few family pictures after we had dinner at Cracker Barrel



Here are the pictures from Christmas Day with my family

Christmas 2012 Celebrations

We have some Christmas traditions that we look forward to every year.  One of those traditions is a Christmas party with a group of friends who we used to be in a small group with together.  Even though we're not in that small group anymore we've been friends for 8 or more years.  Here are pictures from that party which we hosted at our new house this year:




I don't know if this will be a new tradition or not, but this year we went to the Christmas tree lighting for the Town of Harrisburg. Our older niece's school choir was singing and she specifically invited us to come see her sing. Thankfully we were actually able to see her on the stage! It was cold, but we did enjoy getting to hear her school choir sing. We had a good time, but it doesn't compare to the Harrisburg 4th of July festivities so I'm not sure if we'll add this to our Christmas traditions. Here are a few pictures from the Harrisburg Christmas tree lighting:



My absolute favorite Christmas tradition is going to see the Behold the Lamb of God concert at our church. This was the 6th year that Chad & I have gone to see this concert and every year it's my favorite part of the Christmas season. This year my Mom was in NC for Christmas so she and Chad's Mom were able to come with us to the concert. They both LOVED it and were so glad that they could come with us. Here are some pictures for the Behold the Lamb of God concert this year:

Decorating for Christmas

We were SO excited to have Christmas in our new house!  It was so much fun decorating and getting ready for Christmas in our new house.  We even bought some new outside decorations too!  I love Christmas anyway and decorating for it, but it was even more fun this year because we're so happy with our new house.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas decorations:

Thanksgiving

This year because we're in our new house and we have LOTS more room, we decided to host one big Thanksgiving with both Chad's family and my family.  We ended up having 13 people total!  Thankfully I didn't have to cook everything - Chad's Mom and sister both cooked and we ended up with TONS of food.  I'm so thankful that we have a house where we can host both families since it's not often that our families are able to spend time together.  Here are pictures from our Thanksgiving this year:

My Halloween Treat

I love using coupons!  I've been more serious about my coupon use for the past few years and it's definitely paid off.  I've learned that when Harris Teeter has triple coupons (where they triple a coupon's value up to $.99) you need to go on the first day or all the best deals will be sold out.  So, the most recent triple coupons started on Halloween - so that was my treat for Halloween this year!  I got all the groceries seen in the picture below for $43 and SAVED $61!!!  It makes me so happy to get such good deals.  My best deals were Dawn detergent for $0.25 each (I got 2) and cat treats for $0.16 each (I got 4).

Housewarming Party

We are so excited about our new house, so we wanted to have a housewarming party so that we can show our house to all our friends and family.  Having the party also forced us to have a deadline to get some projects done around the house too!  The party went really well and it was nice to have so many friends and family over.  My only complaint was that I was so busy being the hostess that I hardly took any pictures and unfortunately a lot of the ones I took were blurry.  I hate it when the picture looks good on the camera screen, but when you upload it to the computer it's blurry.  So, I wish I had more pictures of everyone at the party, but here are the ones I did take - blurry and all:

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

We always get our Halloween pumpkin at Hodges Farm.  We always try to support local farmers when we can and it's been our tradition for the past few years to get our pumpkins from Hodges.  This year we got a really good pumpkin that was super easy to carve too!  Here are pictures of our visit to Hodges pumpkin patch, carving our pumpkin, and our other Halloween decorations:

Fall at our New House

We are still loving every minute in our new house!  It's even prettier now that it's fall too and all the leaves are changing.  Here are some pictures of the beautiful trees around our new house this fall:

Polyface Farm Visit

My big birthday gift from Chad was going to visit and tour Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia.  Joel Salatin is my hero - he is well known in the sustainable farming world and if you've seen the documentary Food, Inc. then you've seen him and his farm featured in that movie.  I was first introduced to Joel Salatin by the documentary Food, Inc.  I had already been reading a lot of books about the industrial food industry, but watching Food, Inc. was life changing for me.  Then I read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan where Pollan goes to Polyface farm and works there learning all about Joel Salatin's sustainable way of farming.  In that book Joel Salatin compares the food industry to the Protestant Reformation - he basically says that we don't need the government to pass laws banning certain farming practices or industries, but if enough people are educated about the reality of industrial food production and choose another way there is no need for any laws.  Just like when Martin Luther wrote the 95 Thesis and effectively opened the door for Protestantism, there was no need for any laws outlawing Catholicism but as people could read the Bible for themselves they could make their own choice.  This was really a lightbulb moment for me - we don't need laws to make changes - we make better choices and eventually if enough people make better choices and support their local farmers then the industrial food industry will be unnecessary.  Anyway, I'm a BIG fan of Joel Salatin and I think that he is a farming icon.  So, when I found out that Polyface offered twice monthly farm tours for only $15 each I told Chad that that's what I wanted to do for my birthday, so we bought tickets for the last weekend in September and found a place to stay in Charlottesville, VA (about an hour away from the farm).  So, here are our pictures from our weekend in Charlottesville and our Polyface Farm tour.  The best part of the whole trip was meeting Joel Salatin and getting to talk to him at the end of the farm tour - we also got a picture with him and he signed one of my books!

Jessica's Birthday

For my birthday this year my two main presents from Chad were tickets to see Dead Sara on my birthday and at the end of the month we are going to Virginia to visit Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm.  We also had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the week of my birthday.  Originally I was supposed to work on my birthday, but thankfully a wonderful co-worker switched weekends with me so I could be off on my birthday.  So, Chad and I were able to spend the whole day together.

There was a Self Reliance Expo in Hickory, NC on my birthday weekend that Chad was really interested in going to, so we did that in the morning and went to the Dead Sara concert that night.  At the Self Reliance Expo Chad got to meet Jack Spirko who is one of his favorite podcasters.  Chad has been listening to Jack for the past few years so it was really cool for him to get to meet Jack in person.  I kind of had to twist Chad's arm to get him to ask for a picture with Jack, so here it is:

For the past few years there have been some really good concerts around my birthday, so I was super excited when I found out Dead Sara was playing in Charlotte on my birthday!  When I first heard Dead Sara on the radio I KNEW I would love their music and bought their CD within a week or two of first hearing them on the radio.  Chad isn't always as excited about going to concerts as I am and he hadn't really listened to the Dead Sara CD much before we went to the show.  But, as soon as they started playing he leaned over and said "Holy S#*% this girl can sing!" and he loved every minute of the show as much as I did.  They really put on an incredible show too - they REALLY rocked out.  I was VERY impressed!  They even did a cover of "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine which was super impressive.  I would love to see them again - they just killed it.  I loved the CD and it barely does justice to how good the band is live.  It was definitely one of the best concerts I have EVER been to (and I've been to a LOT of concerts)!  Here are my pictures from the Dead Sara show:

Family Visit

My Dad usually comes to visit us in the summer to celebrate birthdays - my brother and Chad's birthdays are in July and my Dad and my birthdays are in September.  This year for the birthday celebrations my Dad and my Grandmother were able to come visit us so they could see our new house.  Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures when we went out for the birthday dinner with all of us, but I did get a picture of me, my Dad, and my Grandmother in front of our new house.

Updating Our New House

Our new house already had quite a few updates done before we purchased it, but we recently painted the main bathroom and laundry area and made a few other changes.  I got the idea for the laundry room from something I saw on Pinterest and it turned out great!  Here are the before and after pictures of the main bathroom and laundry room updates:

Matthews Alive 2012

Since I grew up in the Matthews area I've always loved going to the Matthews Alive parade and festival (when I was a kid it was called Stumptown).  This year Chad & I were able to go to the parade, which seemed a little shorter this year.  After the parade we stopped by the Matthews Library to see one of my friends and former co-workers Debi.  Debi gave us the grand tour of the Matthews Library and I really miss working with her so it was great to see her again.  Unfortunately it was SO hot and humid that we didn't really stay too long at the festival area.  But, I still always enjoy going whenever I can.  Here are some pictures from the parade:

August 2012 Cat Pictures

Sandy & Roxy snuggling - they look like a heart!

Roxy was enthralled with this lizard on our deck.

Sandy enjoying one of our new chairs.

C&J Services 5 Year Anniversary

On August 27, 2007 Chad started his own business C&J Services.  Since Chad did all the work himself in the beginning I helped him on Labor Day in 2007 and 2008.  In 2011 Chad hired his first employee, but unfortunately he wasn't really cut out for this type of work and Chad had to let him go after 2 months.  Then in the fall of 2011 Chad hired his cousin Jarren as a sub-contractor and in 2012 he hired James as another sub-contractor.  In 2012 we celebrated 5 years of C&J Services being in business!  Starting this business was a leap of faith for us and we give God all the credit with the success of Chad's business.  Not long after Chad started his business the economy crashed and the housing market fell apart (which was a BIG part of Chad's work) and Chad's work dropped down to hardly anything, but he pursued more handyman stuff and we pulled through.  Now he has more work than all 3 of them can get done!  Here are some pictures from the early days of C&J Services and from our 5 Year Anniversary Celebration:

Some of the Reasons Why I Love My Church

This is a picture I took with my phone of some of the 358 stocked backpacks that members at my church Mecklenburg Community Church donated to A Child's Place.  A Child's Place is a local organization that helps homeless children prepare for school.  Last year was the first year that our church partnered with A Child's Place, so I was very excited to buy and stock 2 backpacks for this year!  This is just one of the many reasons why I love my church - we don't just talk about helping people in need we actually DO it.

For the past 6 months or so our church has been undergoing an expansion project with our building.  We have now doubled the seating capacity at our main campus by adding a balcony level with stadium style seating.  Over the summer while the auditorium was being worked on Meck members were asked to attend another campus so Chad & I got to check out both the Lake Norman and Mountain Island Lake campuses. Since Chad led worship at the first Lake Norman satellite campus, it was cool for us to be able to see how Meck has grown from that first satellite campus experience.  This past Sunday was the first weekend that the balcony was open and we were able to sit up there where I took this picture with my phone during the worship time.  I'm so thankful to be a part of a church that is growing so much that we've had to expand our physical spaces at all our locations!

Some other stats about our church:

One of our goals is to grow 15% each year which is a REALLY big goal when many churches are rapidly losing people instead of growing.  Between 2011-12 Meck grew by 18.56%!

Of that growth this year between 61-77% of those people were unchurched before attending Meck.

Baptisms since Meck began:

1993-97 - 164

1998-02 - 319

2003-07 - 502

2008-12(ytd) - 985

Roxy and Sandy at the New House

Roxy and Sandy did very well with our move.  We kept them confined to a room in our townhouse while we moved all our stuff out, then came back to get them once we had unloaded most of our stuff into the new house.  Then we kept them confined to our bedroom in the new house for the first two days.  After that we let them explore the new house.  At first they were more skittish and kept running back to our room to hide under the bed every time they heard a noise.  Now they've really settled in and are enjoying the new house just as much as we are.  Here are some pictures of the cats in our new house:

Enjoying Our New House

The previous owner of our house did a lot of updates and upgrades so there weren't any major things we needed to work on right away.  In the kitchen there was a cook top and separate wall oven, which would have been OK, but the oven was so tiny I don't think any of my pans would have fit in it!  So, we decided to buy a new range and Chad and one of the guys who works for him Jarren, removed the cook top and installed the new range the weekend we moved in.  Chad also immediately started working on building a work bench area in the basement so that he would have a space set up to start working on household projects.  Here are some pictures the updates we did to our new house:




Here are some other pictures of us enjoying our new house!

Our Dream House!!!

When we found this house we knew immediately that it was everything we wanted and more!  Chad originally saw the house listed online, but before we could go see it it went "under contract", but then a month or so later it was back on the market because the financing fell through with the last contract.  We saw the house on a Friday and by Monday we had made an offer and it was accepted - then we had to start the mountain of paperwork for the loan.  Thankfully we had a wonderful realtor and mortgage lender who helped us navigate this process since it had been over 8 years since we had purchased our townhouse.  At the end of July we closed on our new house!  It's a brick ranch with a full basement on 3 acres - we were hoping for a brick ranch on at least half an acre and a basement would have been a huge bonus, so this was everything we were looking for and MORE.  We are so excited to finally be in our dream house!

Change of Plans...

While our house was for sale we were looking at other houses so if our townhouse sold we would have other houses in mind that we might want to buy.  So, we found our dream house and loved it so much that we saw it on a Friday and had made an offer on it the following Monday - our offer was accepted the same day.  So, we decided to keep our townhouse and rent it out and buy our dream house.  We had always thought about trying to keep our townhouse, but wanted to at least try to sell it first.  We just couldn't pass up the opportunity for our dream house!  So, we had a slight change of plans...and now we're packing up our townhouse and putting it up for rent.

When we decided to try to sell our house we planted ornamental flowers in our garden beds.  I posted pictures a few months ago right after we planted them.  So, for the last pictures from our townhouse I wanted to show how much those flowers have grown.  It's been a few years since we grew ornamental flowers and I think at our next house we'll have plenty of room for both a vegetable garden AND some ornamentals!

Our townhouse back "yard."

The lantana really got big!

A butterfly on the lantana.

The other flowers that I can't remember the name of.