Having it All

There used to be a catch-phrase about working mothers trying to "Have it All". People have debated what that really means. I think "having it all" begins when you realize that you already have all you need. I am not lucky...I am blessed. I never win anything. But I have been given gifts whose worth are unmeasurable.

1. Salvation I have been chosen to be a child of the most high God. WOW!

2. Parents I had two parents who loved me without end. They worked their whole lives to give me security. And my daddy thought I hung the moon. Pretty cool, huh.

3. My Namesake I am named after my granny. She was a 4 ft 11 1/2 inch spitfire. She was an amazing cook, kept an immaculate home, and raised 6 kids, including my daddy, without pulling her hair out. And I was her Punkin. She washed my long blond hair and brushed it til it shined, she laid in the twin bed beside me talking for hours, and she loved me the best way she knew how...by cooking for me every day while I was recovering from a devastating car accident.

4. Marriage I have been married for 18 years to a man who will do anything for me...as long as no one else knows how sweet he is. He has put up with so much on my end, including people thinking that he is the hard one to live with! I love him more now than the day I married him. I've spent half my life with him, and know that I will spend the rest of it being continuously surprised by him.

5. Jacob He is the oddest combination of Frank and me. Amazingly smart, very witty, a bit stand-offish...a doggone good lookin' boy! And then from Frank he gets...haha, just kidding! Jacob is a son anyone could be proud of. He is a good boy, a really good boy. He picks on his sister, and he can be quite a pig, but I know that I will never be embaressed by his behavior when he goes somewhere. He is respectful and kind, and my very favorite son!

6. Paige My angel baby. She is growing up so much. She is as tall as I am, and has bigger feet than I do. She considers herself a fashionista, and loves doing anything artsy crafty. She is all drama, and life is never boring around her. She is a Daddy's girl, and loves the one on one time they have together, but she also loves to shop and decorate and cook with me. She feels everything very deeply, and loves being with the girls. She is full of life, and full of spunk...and she is my very favorite daughter!

7. Friends I've learned it's not about the size of your circle of friends, but the depth. Frank and I have been blessed with lots of friends who have been like family to us over the years, but we are truly blessed now with friends that ARE family. Gene and Cindy have loved on us through the worst of times, and the best of times. They love our children, they love our dogs, they even love us. I know if we needed anything, all we would need to do is ask....and I have, over and over. When I grow up, I want to be as good a friend as they have been to us!

8. Job Oh I whine about working, but I have a great job. I make good money, I have great hours, and I work with some awesome people. But most of all, I have 23 little children who think I hung the moon...sometimes. In what other profession do you get a continuous stream of love notes? The best part of my job is when I see a former student tell my current students how lucky they are to have me. Or when I see a parent years later tell their friends how much I meant to them. Wow, what an ego boost! (I've also gotten some preferential treatment and great deals from being a teacher lately...can't hurt!)

9. My Home I am a house mouse. A home body. I am all about my house. It's my hobby, my passion. I love making the place my family lives beautiful. Especially when I can do it for cheapness! I know that home is where memories are made, and I feel like having a warm, inviting home for my family gives them comfort they can't get anywhere else. I put a lot of effort into our home, and so does Frank. He hears my big ideas, and then he makes them reality. Our home is filled with love, chaos, laughter, noise, and pride.

10. Church We are getting more and more comfortable at our new church home. It is so welcoming and loving there. Bro. Tim is a pastor first, preacher second. I love to him her preach God's word, but I also can feel his love for his fellow Christians. Without a pastor's love, the words about God's love don't sink in as deeply. I hope that makes sense. I know this will. All four of us are excited to go to church every time the doors are open. We are excited to worship with others, to learn more about our Savior with other Christians, and to fellowship with good people.

Wow, what a long post! And that is just 10 of the many, many things I have been blessed with in my life. Have it all? Way more than I deserve!

Our New Sun Room

Welcome Visitors! (and friends too!)

My Metamorphosis this week is our new sun room.

My wonderful husband closed our screened in porch to make a sun room. I didn't think to take true before pictures but I do have a few construction pics.

My almost 14 year old son working...and my husband watching, hahaha!

The beginning of the siding going up.

The outside finished product on the pool side of our house.

The finished product...and my beautiful azalea.

The inside sitting area.

The new dining area. (We love to entertain and plan to use this room for overflow dining since its right off the dining room.)

My rescued baker's rack. This was left in the basement when we moved into our house, and my husband wanted to throw it away! A can of primer and black spray paint, and I think it turned out lovely! I use it to store pool towels and the basket is for sunscreen and goggles and such. I don't know what else I'm going to put on the shelves, and I'm open to suggestions! I know I'm going to put an aloe plant for people who do not use the sunscreen!

A close up of a sweet watering can I found at Lowe's.

A pretty thing I bought at Michael's a few years ago.

Thank's for visiting our new sunroom. Be sure to visit Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday for more transformations!

A Spring Tablescape

Welcome to my home! The table is set for spring and we are anxiously awaiting Easter dinner.My table is set with a few old pieces that belonged to my Mama. The little birdie was a gift from a student and as soon as I saw her I knew that she would be on my spring table!

The magnolias were rescued from an old wreath I made years ago.

Another view of some of my silver pretties. I love silver pieces!

My china is Montclair by Lennox. Silver is Gorham Chantilly. Crystal is Gorham Lady Anne. For napkins I used some fabric from Mama's fabric stash and white hankies! The napkin rings are from a very exclusive boutique you may have heard of...Walmart! They were clearance finds left over from fall.

Thank you for stopping by! We love company! Be sure to stop by Between Naps on the Porch's Tablescape Thursday party to see many more beautiful tablescapes!

A Bathroom Metamorphosis

We moved into our beloved 1970's ranch style house in late 2006. Almost every original finish was still in the house and we immediately started updating the house. We had to start with the kitchen because it needed help the most and we did other projects as we had time and funds available. Spring 2008 we did a mini redo of the master bath, but we finally bit the bullet and did a total gut and rebuild March 2010. We are VERY blessed that Frank's dad is an awesome carpenter and he came up and worked for 3 long weeks building my dream bathroom. It is freshly finished, and I haven't started decorating it yet, but I couldn't wait to show it off! So here it is, My Bathroom Metamorphosis!

The Before's

The bathroom was divided into two separate rooms divided with a bi-fold door. In the front room was a double sink. In the mini-remodel we put up bead board over the hunter green wallpaper and I painted the mirrors and the cabinets. When Paige broke her leg, she scratched the paint off the cabinets with her crutches.

The second room held the toilet and tub. It had the original harvest gold tile and huge toilet that hung on the wall. It was not water efficient to say the least, and we called it our 5 gallon bucket toilet.

Harvest gold tub...the finish was so worn you just couldn't make it look clean.

The view from one end of the bathroom to the other.

Opposite view from hallway door through the bathroom.

A closet from the master bedroom butted into the bathroom and there was a door into the bedroom.

Gotta love all that harvest gold.

The During's

Demo started with pulling down the beadboard....see the green wallpaper we started with originally.

The walls started coming down.

Oh the mess!

This one is out of order, but under the carpet pad was the original green carpet glued to the floor...gross!

The After's

We now have one big bathroom. It only opens into the master bedroom so it's a true master bath. We just have a case opening into the bedroom and so far, I love it. This is my vanity. My father-in-law built the cabinets in our garage so I could have exactly what I wanted.

I love my new Jacuzzi tub and the tile turned out so pretty!

This is the view from my bedroom doorway. The window is the one thing that did not change in the bathroom!

Here is the view across from the window. I have a ladder shelf that will go there to hold towels and pretty things.

This is "his" vanity. No more sharing!!!

Another view of my vanity. I've not been able to put on my makeup in the bathroom for 3 1/2 years...I've been getting ready in my closet!

The water closet. This used to be a tiny linen closet, but we enlarged it to use it as the w.c. This included raising the floor because it goes over the basement stairs and without raising the floor, you would bump your head going down the stairs.

This shows the location of the w.c.

I love my new bathroom, and have been able to use it for two days now! I am going to get it all decorated while I'm home for spring break and can't wait to get to Hobby Lobby to get some new things picked out! I'm linking to Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday for the first time today. I read it every week, and am so excited to finally be joining the party! Be sure to drop by some of the other links...I'm sure that you will be inspired!

And here's one more pic of my bathroom because it's so darn pretty!

Are You Ready?

I'm ready! Ready to go! Frank and I are headed to Atlanta to spend the night at the fancy schmancy Westin, and then we are flying out at 7:45 am to Arizona. Yipee! We will fly to Phoenix, then to Yuma, to get Rickey and Amelia moved back to Georgia. I'm hoping to convince them to take me into Mexico just long enough to say I've been and to buy cheap souveniers, then Friday morning, we will start the long ride back to GA. Road Trip 2010. We will go through lots of states I've never been to, and I will try to remember to take lots of pics along the way.

I feel fantastic today, and I don't know if it's in anticipation of the trip, or if it's the steroids I'm on for my knee pain. Either way, I'm stoked. My knees feel much better, so I'm hoping to be able to maneuver the airports without a mobility scooter.

The kids will be with the McCoy's and the Pry's for the weekend. Jacob is going to a youth retreat for part of the weekend, and Paige and Matthew have plans to see "Diary of a Whimpy Kid" so they should have a lot of fun too while their parents are living the life of a young childless couple. Thank God for such good friends who love your kids enough to help you raise them!

Couponing

Today was my first foray into couponing. I went to a Women on Mission meeting on Tuesday night and was inspired to try the couponing thing. I spent way too much time trying to prepare, but it didn't help so much at CVS. A lot of the best deals were already gone. When I got to the checkout, there was no one in line, so I asked the lady could I break it up so I could use my Extra Care Bucks. You could tell she didn't want to do that, so I broke it up into only two batches. Something happened, because on the second batch, I didn't get the ECB's I was supposed to...the receipt said "limit reached". These were on different types of items, so I don't know what happened. By this time, there were 3 people in line behind me so I didn't ask any questions. I left very disappointed. I came back home and went through the Kroger ad with my coupons in hand. I think I did great at Kroger. I bought $120something worth of groceries for $82.something. I saved about half with Kroger card, and the other half with coupons. I got 4 old spice deodorants (which Frank uses) for $3.76. I got a Secret for me for $0.88. I got two bags of chex mix for $1.00, and 4 cans of pringles for $4.00. I also got deals on brownie and cake mixes and cookie dough. This is not stuff I usually buy, but it is stuff that my family will definitely use! Our pantry is overflowing (it's usually empty) and the refrigerator is full. I can't wait to get Sunday's paper to see what deals I can find next week!

Home Again

We feel like we are home again...in a church home, that is. Today we joined Lakeside Baptist Church. We said we were going to visit a lot of churches before we made up our mind, but Lakeside was only the second one we went to. It just felt right. The kids were ready to join after the first Wednesday night, lol. We are sure that this is the place God has called us to serve him and to heal the wounds we have suffered. It sure feels good to be home!