Matthew Alive Parade 2013

One of my favorite childhood memories is going to the Stumptown parade and festival, now known as Matthews Alive.  We lived in Matthews from the time I was 7 until I was 15 so going back to the parade and festival reminds me of  my childhood.  Chad & I try to go to the parade and festival most years if we can.  Here are some pictures from this year's parade:

Why We Love Our Church!

Chad & I have been going to Mecklenburg Community Church for 11 years now and we still love it!  It's by far the best church I have ever attended.  Here are just two recent events that show why we love our church so much:

For the past 3 years our church has been doing a backpack drive to support A Child's Place that helps homeless students in Charlotte.  These are just a few of the fully supplied backpacks donated from Meck!

We recently had baptisms after each of our services - so at 3 physical locations that is 7 services over the weekend.  Not sure how many total people were baptized but at the service we attended that weekend at least 30 people were baptized and that is what church is all about!

After the baptisms they served cupcakes.  Here are our friends Becca & Jason's children Braden and Katie with their cupcakes.

Homemade

We have moved more toward making as many things as we can from scratch.  I feel like our society tells us that it's too "hard" to make things from scratch or homemade things that can be easily purchased at the grocery store.  What I've found is that it's not necessarily harder to make things from scratch, but it does require a little more planning than stopping by the grocery store.  Here are a few things we've done that are homemade or made from scratch:

This is the table Chad made for our deck so we can use it for canning and also for when we grill to have some counter space.

Our first batch of refrigerator pickles.  We didn't have our canner situation set up in time when all our pickling cucumbers were coming in from the garden.

Our first batch of homemade chicken stock - we got 7 cups of stock.

Our first batch of home canned tomatoes from the farmer's market.

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.