Date Night With My Super Hero

Tonight was date night. We went out to eat supper then dessert at Swooger's (a local ice cream shop), hung out at Books-a-Million, and walked around the new Target in Gastonia.
We found these awesome masks in their dollar isle. We didn't buy 'em, we just wanted to play with 'em for a little bit. lol
Bruce has always read comic books. Spider man was always his favorite. This is the closest he's come to being Spider Man. But he's the sweetest Super Hero I know.

While we were at Books-a-Million, I was finished looking around, so I sat down with a couple of ladies and was reading some things on my Kindle Fire. The other two ladies were talking and then I joined in. We were having a fun chat until another woman snipped, "Have y'all exhausted all subjects yet? I'm trying to read." She was so serious. But it was one of those moments where my brain was telling me to just be quiet and act normal, yet I suddenly heard myself burst into laughter. She, on the other hand, was not cracking a smile, which made my giggles grow a little larger.

Other than that little kerfuffle, which was still a high light of the evening, we had a great time together. I love date nights with my super hero. You just never know how they're going to turn out.

<3

Valentine's Date

Bruce has been working six days so it was nice to have him on his normal schedule this week. We decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a few days early. We went to the Outback for supper and to exchange gifts, hung out in Gastonia for a little bit, stopped at Wal Mart to pick Harrison up a few things he needed, and ended our night at Krispy Kream. If we make an effort to go to Gastonia, we're stopping at KK's! And the kids always love to see us come home with a box of doughnuts for them. By the way, he bought me a bottle of some of my favorite perfume, Happy Heart, by Clinique, which also came with a new makeup bag and lots of makeup. YAY! He also threw in some other things. ;0) Thanks, babe! I loved my gifts!!

ME
and my Valentine!

We had a very good time, even though he was so tired. You can still see how sleepy his eyes were. I love my Valentine. I am truly thankful for him. He is a blessing in every way. He keeps me laughing and can always make me smile. I had been so excited all day, knowing that we were going out. I've missed my Friday night dates! I love you, Bruce!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We took my mom a few things she needed on Saturday. She has been very sick with bronchitis. She really hasn't gotten over it from last year. She's had some serious dizzy spells and I've tried to tell her to stay down and take it easy, but she doesn't cooperate very well. LOL She's doing ok, although she does need a lot of prayer to get better.

Love you, mom! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The newest update on Becca is that she was fine at 4:00 this morning. She had been opening her eyes on command and even followed her mom with her eyes as her mom was leaving the hospital room. But this morning, around 7:00, one of her lungs collapsed and they had to put a tube in. She takes a couple of steps forward and then one back. But thankfully, she is making some progress. Thank you for the prayers that have gone up on her behalf and please continue to pray for her when you think about it. She's not out of the woods just yet.

Ladders, Giggles, and Demonstrations

And there she is! Our pink helmet-wearin' firefighter. She has a great smile and seemed to be a very nice girl.

The other female in the group might have to drop out because of a severe case of bronchitis. I hope she recovers quickly. Bronchitis can be so bad for some people.
ETS: This IS the female that was sick with bronchitis. For some reason I thought there were two girls in the academy, but when Justin read this post he said no, it was just the girl above. So obviously she is feeling better. That's good.

Justin called me today and said to come take pics. I told him I'd be there if I could, but was doing pictures for a little cutie pie, on top of school work. Fortunately everything was completed by a little after 3:00 and I was able to get to the academy just as they were getting ready to do the ladders.

I didn't mind it at first, but when my little boy started climbing up...and up...and up...I just aimed the camera and closed my eyes to shoot. I couldn't watch. Ok, not really. I watched. Of course I watched! They would climb one ladder and enter a window, walk the floor, then climb out another window onto another ladder. Now, the climbing up and into a window wasn't so bad. It was watching him climb out of the window onto the ladder that gave me the heebie geebies!




This is the part that got me. Ugh! He seemed to like it. Even though he's never been one for heights. I was proud of him.



Did I already say Ugh?



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is the little girl I took pictures of today. Isn't she adorable? She was so cute. I've only got to see her a couple of times and I really enjoyed having her here. She's a sweetheart.




We got so cracked up at this picture below. There was a neighbor's dog that came into the yard and she thought he was hilarious. She would hold her hand over her face and giggle. It was just so cute!






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





Justin has his state test for his EMT tomorrow. Which if you remember from an earlier post, we were praying they would let him go from the academy in time to make it for the test. They did! His papers were signed and he'll be able to go. Praise the Lord! So now, please pray he'll do a good job and pass. He made it home just in time to shower, eat, and head out to his study group.



Bruce is working a lot of overtime. The company that bought the company he works for wants production tripled, if not more. Which, if you live around here, you most likely need a job. So I'm thankful that he has steady work and even overtime coming in and it would be great if some people in the area were hired to fill some positions. Right now they have a freeze on hiring. Maybe when things settle from handing the business over to the new company, they'll lift the freeze. I don't know about right now, but I know that at one point our county had the highest unemployment rate in the state. I'm eager to see how this new company handles things.



I'm a little nervous about Saturday. I'll be giving a demonstration for a publishing company to a group of people from local churches in the area on the publishing companies VBS curriculum. I like the curriculum I'm demonstrating. It's fun, it's cute, it's exciting, it has some awesome craft ideas with it, and best of all, it is a clear presentation in giving the gospel to children. So I'm a little nervous but I'm ready. I think it'll be fun.

Merry Christmas and Happy.........Anniversary?

I am very excited about this weekend. I have an opportunity to take pictures of another wedding. I haven't even met the bride and groom or any of the family. I've spoken with the mother of the bride and they sound like nice people. I'm looking forward to meeting them and looking forward to the wedding.

I'm also excited because I get to use my new camera!!!! Bruce bought me the Canon Rebel T2i for Christmas. It's my new baby. I love her and she is beautiful. haha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of weddings...we celebrated our twentieth anniversary on the twenty-second of December. What a great day our wedding day was! I love my husband more and more each day.

We usually don't do anything for our anniversary since it is so close to Christmas, but this year we decided that after Christmas we would take a few days and slip away. We did that this week and headed up to Pigeon Forge.

I always take a picture of Bruce behind the wheel when we go on a trip. It's our traditional "Gettin' outta Dodge" pic.


The scenery on the way up was so beautiful. Since we had a white Christmas, everything was still covered in the cold, white, delight. Lovely, lovely!

This is my favorite picture. Look at those gorgeous snow clad mountains!

The closer we got to the mountains, the more we saw these beautiful icicles hanging on the side. It was a beautiful ride to Tennessee.

When we got to Pigeon Forge, we stayed at the Park Tower Inn.

Bruce did good finding us a nice hotel. We had a private balcony with a great view.

And a nice warm fireplace to snuggle next to.

We relaxed in the room a little bit and then leisurely made our way to Outback for a late supper, using a gift card my friend gave us for our anniversary. Love me some Alice Springs Chicken!

I love seeing Dollywood at Christmas. It is truly a winter wonderland. Everything is covered in lights and the snow makes it even prettier. I was hoping we could see the lights this year and was kind of disappointed when I thought our plans weren't going to happen. Then the Lord gave us...GAVE US...TWO FREE season's passes. I was really shocked. I admit. Then we find out Bruce was off from, before Christmas to after New Year's. So we took advantage of the time and the passes and made our way up the mountain. God knows the desires of our hearts and it was a blessing!!! I never prayed over it. Just kept that little desire to myself, but God knew. He always knows.

Here's Bruce kneeling down by Jerry Clower's name. Bruce patterns a lot of his story telling after Jerry Clower. Hilarious!

We saw the Kingdom Heirs. They were singing some good Christmas music. The bass singer sang You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch and did a fantastic job.

We also enjoyed some awesome bluegrass Christmas music. These guys were really good. We had decided to buy their CDs and then forgot. It was a good deal too! Oh well...maybe next time. I loved the voice of the bass player. He had that great mellow, high pitched tenor sound that every Bluegrass group needs.

We saw a lot of great shows. It was so cold outside that the shows were definitely a main attraction. LOL One show we saw was Babes In Toyland. We saw it once before when we went at Christmas. I have to say this was my favorite part, when the family flies over the audience. This was the last season for this show. I wonder what they'll be working on next!

We boarded the Dollywood steam engine train and went on a five mile tour. It was so pretty. Snow, mountains, and cute little mountain scenes along the way. I was glad I took my head band. It kept my ears warm on the ride.

I rode the carousel too. You're never too old to ride the carousel!

Like I said, it was really cold. Bruce bought two large Dollywood cups, like the one hanging above the counter. They filled them with hot chocolate for us and then we had free refills the rest of the night. Keeps ya warm, I tell ya!!! Of course, that much hot chocolate also makes you a little bit sick. Especially when you get three refills that size. LOL

We rode the Ferris wheel and can I say that I will never ride that again? Bruce had me scared out of my mind. Usually I don't get scared and he's the one who hates heights. But the roles reversed about five minutes into loading the ride. Ugh!

We saw Twas the Night Before Christmas. It was cute and the little children around me just giggled and laughed. I think I enjoyed that most of all.

All of the buildings were lit up from top to bottom. ALL of the buildings! I just love it.

My darlin'....

We stopped at the lake to see the Carol of the Trees. Christmas music played and the trees would light up in different colors. It was nice. Plus the lights just bounced off of the lake because it was frozen.

They had beautiful trees all over the park.

Someone was kind enough to take our picture together for us.

This was my favorite building. I loved the trees out in front.

We went back to Dollywood this morning to walk around and see one show we missed. Then stopped at Pizza Hut for lunch using a gift card one of our sigma teen families gave us for Christmas before coming back down the mountain.

It was a fabulous trip and I am so glad and thankful we were able to go.

Happy Anniversary, babe! I love you and had a great time with you.

Happy Birthday and Peanut M&M's

My sweet man had a birthday Friday. I won't tell how old he turned. That wouldn't be nice.

Anyway, I had my mom and mom-in-law over. He wanted breakfast for his birthday dinner so I did scrambled eggs, bacon and livermush, biscuits and gravy, and grits. All his favorites. His mom made his birthday cake. He wanted white cake with her homemade frosting. Mmm...good stuff there. Love your cakes, Marie!!
Mom made the scrambled eggs. My back is still in bad shape and I was glad she showed up when she did.
Thank you, mom, for helping with the eggs. :)

I was just going to post the picture above, but this one tickles me every time I see it. When I picked out his birthday card in the store I literally laughed out loud and there was no point in even looking for another card. It was a little story book card and he was reading it aloud, but when he got to this one page he just died laughing, like I did. He was squirting tears. I love to see him smile and laugh and this really had him cracking up.

I hope you had a wonderful birthday, sweetheart. I am so blessed to have you for my husband. I love you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hannah went with me this week to help clean the house I do every other Tuesday. She was such a great help for me, just picking up all the rugs off the floor so I didn't have to bend over. She also cleaned the upstairs so I wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs. I appreciated her willingness to go and help. It took a lot off my mind and back!!
Thank you, Hannah. You're such a sweet daughter. :)

The lady I clean for is really nice. She usually leaves a note with my check telling me to help myself to a snack and a soda. I don't normally have a snack, but I do take my cup and enjoy a soda with crushed ice. However, when I cleaned Tuesday she had peanut M&Ms in her snack basket. Oh, I do love those things. I broke down and had a handful of them. They were so good. I thought about them the rest of the week, wishing I had just one more handful.

Today when I went grocery shopping, guess what was on sale BOGO! M&M's!! I got me a bag of peanut and Bruce a bag of regular. We're going to see who can take the longest to empty their bag. I'm pretty sure mine will still be half full come Christmas. His bag won't make it through Sunday. If I was a bettin' woman, I'd lay money on it! hahaha

Hubby-Time, Swag Bucks, and Amish Stories

I took Bruce to the dentist today to have his teeth cleaned, then ran a couple of errands with him, came home to cook him some breakfast, started school with the kids, and now I'm sitting here blogging while the kids are working quietly.

If you recall, I joined Swag Bucks a while back and promoted it here on my blog. I still promote it. It's been great!! I've gotten several free things from swag bucks, mostly the $5.00 Amazon gift cards, which I've been loading to Amazon and watching my FREE money pile up. Anything I have ordered through Swag bucks has had free shipping too. That's a bonus. Anyway, I like reading Beverly Lewis books and bought her Seasons of Grace series using my Amazon cards I got from my Swag bucks winnings. I just finished the first book this morning, The Secret. It's kind of different, in that there is really no closure to the story in this first book. So I'm eager to begin the second and continue reading about Grace Byler, her mother's strange disappearance, and Heather, a young woman whose mother passed away not long ago and who has escaped to an Amish community to deal with her own recent diagnosis of cancer. Good story line so far.

If you want to join Swag bucks and start earning your own Amazon cards, or whatever other gift cards you may be interested in, just sign up there at the Swag bucks there in my sidebar. It's the easiest thing I've ever done. I joined, downloaded the Swag Bucks tool bar, and started using their search engine when searching the web. And that's how easy it is. Just search something in their search engine, and it's a chance to win swag bucks.

Bruce's dentist told him that Bruce's Uncle Major was in our town's newspaper, so we stopped on the way home and grabbed a paper. He read me the article as we drove home and it was really nice. Bruce's Uncle Major is a funny man. He's quite the character, let me tell ya! The write-up about him was good and I enjoyed hearing it. He just celebrated his 80th birthday, if I'm not mistaken. So Happy Birthday, Uncle Major! We love you.

I've cleaned out closets and drawers and cabinets and last night I cleaned out my washroom. I could not believe how much stuff was in there that we either didn't need or just didn't use any longer. Don't worry, Bruce, I didn't get rid of anything that belonged to you. :D

It looks so much better in there! I love a decluttered, less chaotic look, don't you? Have you ever seen that show Hoarders? I've only watched it once or twice and these people are not hoarders, in my opinion. They're either lazy or have some sort of mental disorder that causes them to be like that. I can't watch it. I get ill.

Well, speaking of decluttered and less chaotic looks, I need to straighten up this living room and do some dusting.

Sleepless Weekend

Bruce and I went on our Friday date night and it was a lot of fun. I wanted to play putt putt, but the truth of it is, we were both exhausted. So after we ate supper and stopped for a milkshake we headed on home. But not before stopping to pick the kids up a frosty from Wendy's. Bruce always brings them back something on Friday night. It's so funny, too, because if they hear us pull up in the driveway, they'll pile out on porch to see what goodies we brought home. And what's so crazy is we usually bring home Krispy Kreme when we get out to Gastonia, and although we were RIGHT THERE, I don't think either one of us even thought about it because we were so tired. LOL

Anyway, we came home and watched a movie with the Hannah and Harry and then crashed. And boy, did we crash!! It wasn't even 11:30 yet and I was sound asleep. But around 1:45 am, I was startled up out of bed when a small gnat flew up my nostril. I jumped up in the dark, making my way to the bathroom, all the time blowing my nose.

Of course this woke Bruce up who asked, "Are you ok?" Well, I was, indeed, ok, so I crawled back in bed. But I couldn't go back to sleep.

I've agreed to do something for someone and, although very excited about the opportunity, I am really scared too! But I know the Lord will help me do a good job for them and I'm looking forward to it. At any rate, it kept me up thinking of all the different things I'll need to do.

About an hour after the gnat incident and laying there thinking, Bruce woke up to use the bathroom. He never did go back to sleep after that and quite frankly, neither did I. I had stopped thinking about my upcoming opportunity (which I promise to elaborate on later) and started thinking about the ladies meeting I was going to Saturday morning. Which was in just a few hours.

Thinking about the ladies meeting got me thinking about grocery shopping and some things we really needed picked up before the kids got up for breakfast. And what would Bruce and Harry eat for lunch while Hannah and I were at the meeting and Justin was at the Fire Department?

So at 6:30 I got up, dressed for the meeting, and was at the grocery store a few minutes after 7:00. Did my shopping, got home and put things away, and had just enough time to put my make up on and freshen up a bit before the meeting.

I thought for sure I'd fall asleep during the meeting, but it was so good I didn't feel tired at all and I'm so glad I went.

Needless to say come Saturday night I was a little whipped. It was about 1:30 when I finally got in bed and I slept like a baby up until Bruce started snoring. I had to giggle quietly as I laid there and listened to him snore, whistle, ahhhhh....snore, whistle, ahhhhh....snore, whistle, ahhhhh....even when he's sleeping my man has rhythm.

They're Back!

The kids were coming home today and I wanted to make sure I degermed the house as much as possible. After the stomach virus and this horrible summer cold/flu thing, it was a definite must!

I'm still sick and didn't feel like cleaning, but I had bought these pretty pink gloves last week and forgot about them so when I opened the cleaning cabinet to retrieve some products, there they were. It made my cleaning more enjoyable.
:)

The kids called shortly after lunch and said they were just a few minutes from the church so I freshened up a bit and hit the door. I was excited about seeing them and hearing what all happened at camp this year. They were full of stories and testimony. It was a blessing.

I prayed the Lord would deal in their hearts this week and He did. Justin is stewing on some things and we'll see how that goes. The dealt with Hannah's heart also. She's going back next week to their Leadership camp for a few days. She's looking forward to that. I was glad to hear she had a desire to go to that. From what I have heard it is an intense leadership training course. I know the Lord will work on her heart some more while she's there.

It was so good to see my kids. I've missed them this week.

Justin was pleasantly surprised to see that his diploma from CCC had arrived in the mail today. So now everything is official for him.

While they laid around and napped for four hours (lol), Bruce kept our regularly scheduled date night. We went to see a man about a horse. OK, not really. But we did go see a man about a vehicle. It wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but we sure did enjoy the talk we had with him and appreciate him so much!

We ended up doing fast food tonight. We were both actually wanting a burger and ended up at Burger King. It was my idea. He was open to anywhere and I chose Burger King. I haven't had a flame broiled burger in a while. Anyway, we enjoyed our time together talking and picking on one another. Hit Wal Mart for a little bit, then a couple of stores at the mall. I did find a really cute jacket at Burke's Outlet I may go back after. I'm not usually an impulse buyer, but this was just really cute and I'm regretting not getting it. I might go back after it tomorrow. On the flip side, Bruce found him a couple of shirts he liked and bought them. I found a cute door ornament tonight. I call her my Ivy Fairy. LOL She'll be sweet hanging on my front door.

And then we came home. We're watching the picture video the kids brought home from camp. And thus concludes our Friday.

OH! By the way, we have a young preacher boy in our church that has started blogging. Brother Troy is one of my favorite preacher boys. He has such a tender heart for God and is a serious studen of the WORD! Please stop by his blog and read his posts and leave a comment if you will. He's a wonderful young man and this family loves him a whole lot!

Click here to read Walking In The Old Paths.

Museum, Fountains, and....the Flu?

The jury is still out on what I've got....or gotten rid of. After a conversation with my mother in law I feel as though Bruce and I both have had the stomach virus AND the flu. Which would explain his all over body aches Sunday and the fever I was running last night. I also feel like I've been beat with a sledgehammer and that my head is swimming in goo, as I mentioned on my facebook status.

While Justin and Hannah are gone this week, I wanted to do some activities with Harry. I wasn't feeling GREAT today, but felt like I could make a trip with him out to our local museum and then to the Patriot's Park to let him play in the fountains. So I took my book, packed him a lunch, and we left.
The museum was doing an exhibit on what our ancestors wore.

It was very interesting. They had all kinds of mannequins dressed in period pieces and display cases filled with articles of clothing and shoes. They also had a few pieces for the children to try on. Harrison tried on this vest and top hat and tried flirting with this mannequin...who wouldn't give him the time of day.

After the museum, I stopped at the store so Harry could run in and get himself a drink to take to the Patriot's Park. Mom and dad pulled up beside us and decided to go with us to watch him play in the fountains. It was nice. They brought lunch and drinks for all of us. It was so good to sip on that cold soda when it was so hot outside. Sitting under the shade was nice too.

This is the top of the Gazebo there in Patriot's Park. A nice looking place. I just wish they'd put a couple of benches in the gazebo. That would be nice. It's so spacious I don't know why they haven't done that. Maybe because they have bands and things in there sometimes.

The flower garden had a few pretty flowers still in bloom and the bees were just a-buzzin'!

And of course Harrison had a blast playing in the cool water.

By the time we were done at the park my body was ready to give out. I could barely lift my arms to unlock the door. Right now I'm going to lay down and probably stay down the rest of the evening.

I'm glad I was able to do something with Harrison today.