Baby E. two weeks old~

Had a GREAT photo shoot Tuesday. Baby E was the best model ever, I shot pictures over 2 hours and she never got fussy. What a wonderful opportunity to do what I love and have such a beautiful model to work with~

Enjoy

Photography is my passion

We have been blessed with two new additions to our family the last two weeks. Two beautiful new nieces. One on my husband's side of the family and one on mine.

I offered to photograph both beauties for their parents the first few weeks of their new lives.

Here are a few picture of each:

Beautiful L.O.F.

Beauitful E.G.C.

More to come~

Happy 12 year Wedding Anniversary

~I can hardly believe it has been 12 years already~

Time sure does fly by fast these days. Dave and I were just talking yesterday about when, where and what we were doing 12-13 years ago. Where our families were in their lives, who was married, who had kids, who had bought a house..... A lot can change is 12 years, graduations, first homes purchased, death, births, a fight lost to leukemia, marriages, divorce, and divorce again and again, loss of beloved pets, getting new jobs, loss of jobs, a battle with breast cancer WON, being broke, wrecks, medical emergencies, medical bills, the list can go on and on.

We have treasured our lives together even when it hurt so much we thought we might die of the physical pain we both felt. It hasn't been easy, nope not at all. I admire the couples that it has been easy for and yes there are that very few that has been able to experience a blissfully easy marriage, we know a very special couple who as the husband said a few years back, "being married to her is easy, we don't fight or argue or go to bed mad at each other; I can't even imagine having a hard marriage." I think that is wonderful but not the norm, maybe is it because I am too hard-headed and stubborn (I get told that every now and then) :-)

Dave and I have what we call "discussions" often and even more so now that we have children. Isn't it ironic we wanted these cute little beings so bad, they get here and BAMMMMM boy can they cause some heated "discussions"

Want to know something? Dave and I added it up one time just after my brother went through his nasty divorce from his first wife and got engaged to his second wife 3 months later, having dated her the entire time he was going through his divorce. WE (Dave and I) made it, we did, we were the only cousins on my dad's side of the family to stayed married.

Out of six other cousins,we are the only ones still together with our original spouse. Now if you count both sides of the family there are well over a dozen divorced cousins, aunts and uncle. Crazy isn't? Please tell me you think this too. Why is it so easy to decide to want an out? Let me tell you something Marriage ain't easy BUT divorce will just about kill you. Just watching my brother going through his and the stupid stuff he did during the divorce would make for an R rated movie. I viewed all of it from a small, silent spot outside the sickness for over a year. Pregnant during it all with Joshua for 9 months of my brother's living hell. The stress alone made me wash my hands of the ick situation months before it would be "settled", if you care to call it that.

My parents loved each other like no other couple I have ever known. Did they have "discussions" Oh yes they did, never in front of us. But it was always behind their bedroom door in voices never over a regular tone. This of course is one of the flaws Dave and I need to work on. It just isn't fair to children to ever see their parents having a "discussion". Kids are like sponges and what they see as a child they WILL carry with them to adulthood. My parent's were great roll models for me and my brother (not sure when he veered off the road)

We all have choices, to choose to do and say how we want to live our lives. God gave all free will, we all have the opportunity to make our own path, to pick which fork in the road we want to take. Having a successful marriage is ALL about choices. To choose to love and respect your spouse, to be faithful to your spouse, to love them even when they don't love themselves, to hold their hand when they are sick, to be the shoulder to cry on or the hand to hold singing in church on Sunday morning. I actually hold Dave's hand at Church on Sunday morning more than I hold it any other day of the week.

So..... do I still love Dave after all these year, would I change anything, even the tough times, ABSOLUTELY I still love him and I wouldn't even change the tough times we have lived through and survived. You betcha I love this man. Could I ring his neck? Sure many times BUT he isn't going anywhere and I'm sure not going anywhere either.

Love ya baby,

~Here's to another 12 years~

Making homemade pesto, would have been much easier with a cuisinart

I have all this great basil growing in my backyard and with cold weather soon approaching I wanted to use as much as I could before the frost got it. Got the "how to" advice from my mother-in-law. Thanks Anne!!!

I washed my basil in cold salt water just to make sure no little bugs were hiding under the leaves. I substituted walnuts for the pine nuts because they are easy to find in the grocery store this time of year and cheater too and yes they work just as well as pine nuts.

Anne said to add just a 1tbls of fresh lemon juice to add to the favor and keep the basil bright. You can also add some of the lemon zest. Kraft Parmesan cheese is just fine to use for your pesto, don't go a buy some expensive Parmesan for this.

Ok, so I do not have a Cuisinart just a blender and yes it can be done in a blender, BUT it is not easy. You have to keep pushing down the basil leaves with a wood spoon so it will keep mixing. Very messy~ A Cuisinart has been added to my wish list for Christmas.

The results, yummy homemade pesto from my backyard! I kept some in the frig that I would use that week and the rest I put in a freezer zip lock and roll into a small log to slice off what I need whenever pesto is on the menu.

Homemade Pesto Recipe

4 good handfuls of fresh basil (About 8 cups)

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 tbls Fresh Lemon Juice ( a pinch of Lemon Zest if you like)

1/2 Cup chopped Walnuts or Pine nuts

2 cloves fresh garlic

Mix all ingredients together:

Add Olive oil as it is mixing, just until it is all mixed. About 1/8 cup Olive oil.

Store in a pretty glass jar or scoop into a freezer bag and roll into a small log and freezer. Will last for 6 months in freezer, only a week or so in frig.

A little planning pays off for a great day of shopping

Out of Pocket: $14.35 (including tax)

Considering the regular price of the razors are $10.99 and the garbage bags are regularly $6.99, just those TWO items would have been more than what my OOP was for all I got.

I'll take 31 items for $14.35 over 2 items for $17.98 any day!!!!

I decided to get out and roll a few deals at Walgreens yesterday. Dave was running very low on his razors and I was a little worried we would be buying them at full price very soon if I couldn't find any good sales going on. Walgreens has really been shoveling out the good deals lately so I decided to venture back to them very slowly; in the past they have been very unfriendly when you hand them coupons.

Shopping at Walgreens is all about figuring out how to roll one register Reward deal into another RR deal so you can just keep rolling Walgreens own money back into more items. With just a few dollars of your own to cover tax and change from each transaction.

From these deals I now have $22 in Register Rewards to roll into more deals next week. But be sure not to let the RR expire.

My budget was a $20 bill in my wallet and when that was gone I would not use anything else.

Here is what I got:

$8.99 / 2 Gillette MVP razors received $6RR for each

$4.00 Tuf Tall Kitchen bags (30 count)

$4.99 Tuf Black outdoor garbage bags (32 count)

$2.99 / 2 purell (8oz) One missing from the photo, hubby already claimed it for school) Received 2RR

.99 / 3 Carefree (In-ad coupon)

.29 /10 Hershey's Dark chocolate Bars (For all my holiday baking) I store them in the freezer

$7.49 / 2 (Rimmel mascara w/ bonus eye liner) used B1G1 Manu. Coupon making it FREE

$2.29 Sally Nail Polish Hand a $5 Sally RR used to make this FREE and help pay for other items.

$1.00 /2 Trident Layers Gum Used .75 IP coupons making these .25 each then I got a 1RR back.

$1.00 /2 Trident Spearmint Gum Used B1G1 manu coupon making them .50 each received a 1RR

.50/ 4 Campbells' Tomato Soup (Used IP coupon $1.00/2 making this FREE

.99 Circle Peanuts for a 3 year old helper!

4 Halloween pencils for cheap fillers

Total before coupons: $61.84

I used 30 dollars in Register rewards, manufacture coupons and in-ad Walgreens coupons to save: $47.49

Included the store sale price of the items, I saved $80.10!!! It pays to shop the sale price of store even if you do not have any coupons.

Picture of Mid-South Fair winnings

Mom, Sara Hailey & I had so much fun last Saturday see what we won at the Mid-South Fair this year.

Enjoy:



Category: Color Photography/ People: Honorable Mention (Deanna)

Sara & Joshua

Youth Categories: (Sara)


Decorated Cupcakes:

BEST OF SHOW/ Ist place ribbon/ King Arthur Price Ribbon

She also won the King Arthur Cookie Cookbook (90.00 value) & the Wilton Cake Decorating Cookbook

Party Cookies: 2nd Place

Handmade Jewelry: 1st Place & Fingerprint Art: 1st Place




Decorated Bottle: 3rd Place

Any other small craft item: 3rd Place





Refrigerator Magnet: 3rd Place (it had fallen over in the case but I had the picture I took at home)




Key Chain: 1st Place

~Picture Coming Soon~

Handmade Card: Honorable Mention

Paper Bag Puppet:

Scrapbook: 1st Place

Scrapbook Page: 2nd Place

******************************************************************************

Adult Crafts: (Donna) My beautiful mom

Childrens' wear: BEST OF SHOW/1st place

Any Felt Item:

Knitted Love Cap: 1st Place

Knitted Infant Hat: Honorable Mention

Stuffed Animal: 3rd Place

Knitted Infant Set: 2nd Place


Apron: 1st Place

****************************************************************************

Adult crafts/culinary (Deanna) ME!

Catagories:

Fabric Purse: Chairman's Choice Award/ 1st place

Children's wear: 1st Place

Apron: 3rd Place

Fudge: 1st Place

Cheesecake Fudge: 1st place

Lemon Cake: 1st place

Any other layerd Cake: 2nd Place ribbon

~Picture coming soon~

Divinity: 2nd Place Ribbon

~Picture Coming Soon~

Baker's X 2

Tuesday was a very busy day for me. As soon as I got my daughter and my wonderful husband out the door and on the way to their school, I turned to oven onto 325 degree and that is where it stayed until it was time to pick up Sara from school that afternoon.



Wednesday was the 1st culinary show for the Midsouth Fair and I had a lot of baking to get done the 24 hours before the items were due at the judges table. I started out with making the cakes for my Lemonade Cake (my mother in laws recipe) I knew they needed to cool completely and then chill in the frig. for a bit so I could do my crumb coat of the lushes whipped frosting. This cake has to stay cool or all the lemon frosting will run down the sides.



Next I moved onto Divinity, oh such a lovely candy that so few can make. Not really sure why or how it is so hard to achieve but for most I have spoken to, the perfect divinity has always been out of their reach. I actually use my grandmother's recipe for seafoam. I can't really see the difference in the two recipes but maybe it is the way I was taught by her and what to watch for as the hot sugar mixture is mixing away with the whipped egg white and just as it loses that shiny glisten you add the broken up pecans.

Midsouth Fair : Here we come~

We are so excited about the up and coming fair. Mom, Sara Hailey and I turned in all of our completed craft and photography entries last week and the baking starts on Tuesday!!! The ladies at the Midsouth Fair office said that entries were way down this year because of the move to the Desoto Civic Center. I am sad to see it move from the fairgrounds in Memphis but times change and so must our beloved Midsouth Fair.

This is the 153rd year of the Midsouth Fair. Link to website: http://www.midsouthfair.org/

I told the ladies I would follow the fair anywhere it went because this is such a joy for me to enter every year and now that Sara Hailey is old enough to enter I am having even more fun collaborating craft ideas with her. This year we are both entered the Karo Cookie Contest. Sara is entering the No Bake Cookie Category and I am enter the Baked Cookie Category. We have worked and reworked Sara's recipe, she has had some brillant ideas about what to experiment with and change around. I am so proud of how involved she is with working up her very own recipe for the contest.

So...do we really needs so much stuff?

When I first started couponing back in July 2007, I was so excited about ALL the stuff I could get for pennies on the dollar or even better FREE. I jumped on the bandwagon and bought blood glucose meters, medicine, food items that I knew I wouldn't use just because it was SUCH A GOOD DEAL!. I think many new couponer do the same thing and it is truly a learning experience. I held onto those meters until this past spring 2009, (TWO YEARS) and realized they were not helping anyone sitting in my very small space I have to store my stockpile items so I donated them to a local charity, now I hope they are being used by someone that really needed them to begin with. The medicine and food have also found good homes.

There is always someone who needs something more than you. Isn't that what we are put on this earth to do... give more than we receive? To serve and give of ourselves, to offer what talents we have to help other around us. No, not many of us are in a position financially to give monetarily but there are so many other ways to help another person. Unfortunately society sets the standard that to give and be charitable is to GIVE money.

As I child we never have the latest toy or game, we didn't have cable tv (the horror!) I couldn't have my own phone line and I didn't get my own tv in my bedroom until I was sixteen (and I had to buy it myself). In fact, I still have that tv, its new home has been in Dave's and my bedroom for the last 11 years. My brother and I never had a need that wasn't met, we did have wants that were met and many that were not met, for good reason and I thank my parents daily for not indulging my every want. We live in a society fill, no overflowing with wants. My kids even have a hard time understand the difference between a need and a want because they have seen so many of their friends with their every little want met. How is that teaching a whole generation of children how to be diligent in being frugal.

People are so quick to say that their stuff is too old, out of date, not cool any more, or look at what he/she has, if they have one why can't I, I deserve one too. I work just as hard as them, I never get myself anything, my car isn't new enough, my house isn't big enough, my clothes aren't the correct brands for this season, my kids have to dress like all the other kids. I won't be cool if I don't get the lastest gadget.

In a week we will be having our annual neighborhood yard sale and as always I purge as much as I can out of the house. Cleaning out unused items and cleaning out my mind and body at the same time. A few years back as we were packing up the leftovers from a yard sale to stuff back into the attic and garage; I had a light bulb moment.

Why was I packing it back up and putting it back in my home? If I was willing to sale these items standing in my front yard to complete strangers, those items had no sentimental meaning to me anymore. So WHY was I not letting them go after they were the rejects of complete strangers? From then on I made a rule for myself that if it went into the yard sale in didn't come back into the house. I would donate the items to local charities or give the items to friends or family that could get good use out of it.

"Life is too short to hoard everything you have. If there is someone in need in your community then please help them. You never know when that someone could be you."

After you start stocking up on items you or your family will use, when you can get them at a great price, you will understand the importance of stockpiling. Anytime there has been a need for food, toiletries, medicine or toys I just go shopping in my garage. I still do have a few panic attacks over my stockpile because we do have more than we need but I try an reassure myself that yes we do have this stockpile BUT we haven't had to borrow money to buy groceries since November 2007.

So, do we really need all that stuff. No we don't if all we do is hoard our good fortune, whatever that fortune is. Be open to have a charitable heart and give your last bottle of spaghetti sauce to someone who might not be able to feed their kids that night or give a few blankets away that have been stuffed in the hall closest for the last few years, to a family in need; because you never know when you will be the one who needs that help.

Midsouth Fair works in progress...

Sara's Karo No Bake Bar Cookies

Sara's School Art Entry:

Artist at work:

Fabric for my apron:

Fabric for my purse:

Preparing for the MidSouth Fair~

We have a Fair in Memphis every year and of course there are contest and competitions to enter. I started entering the Photography competitions over 12 years ago and received many ribbons and also the Best of Show ribbon for my dancer series I shot my last two years of college. Actually the Best of Show print was a digital image I created using photo shop at school and was the first of its type to win and because of that they created a new category for the photography competition!

I finally decided I need to retire from the photography side and start entering the craft and cooking competitions four years ago. I also encouraged mom to start entering too. She is such a crafty lady and had always wanted to enter the Fair but my grandmother never really encouraged her to enter and compete. She won a Best of HSow ribbon the first year for a beautiful set she made Sara. I guess she just needed me to push her into it! LOL

Last year, Sara Hailey was old enough to enter and now we had three generations entered, how cool is that! So much so, that The Commercial Appeal, our local newspaper, wrote a half page article on us and printed a huge picture of all three of us and another adorable picture of Sara Hailey surrounded by all the ribbons I had won over the years. I am going to contact the writer again this year and see if she will do another feature article just on Sara Hailey.

Let me tell you, I have one very creative kid! She is entering 14 categories this year, four are in the culinary division. We have been working hard for over two weeks getting her craft ideas down on paper and then deciding what she wanted to create. She has almost all her crafts done, just a few to finish up. She made the cutest paper bag puppet and finger print picture this year, just to name a few~

We also brainstormed a recipe of the Karo No Bake Cookie contest she is entering. Sara loves to watch the Food Network and came up with a great idea for her recipe using a top secret ingredient. Recipe will be posted after the Fair!!

Link to Mid South Fair: http://www.midsouthfair.org/

Picture will be posted later today~

When the mouse is away the cats will play~

Sara Hailey had her very first sleepover last Friday with two of her friends. It was at one of the little girl's house and I actually staying a visited with the mom for a few hours because I enjoy her company and any chance I get for adult conversation I take. I was so happy to hear the next morning that Sara did fine, didn't cry but managed to stay up til MIDNIGHT! WoW didn't see that coming all three girls had a birthday party to go to the next day and boy were they tired.



Well, while she was having her waffles and dill scrambled eggs at Lily's house; Dave and I were putting her beautifully refinished antique bed together:


















Sara Hailey lost another tooth Friday night at the sleep over too!!!