The Caffeine Queen

It has been way to long!

2010-12-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

Hello! It seems every year that time starts to speed up during the beginning of September. I look around and before I know it the year is over! It's all I can do just to keep up and I love every moment of it. Late summer and fall is by far my favorite time of year!

Isabella is doing very well and is getting so big! She has started forming a baby vocabulary with her latest word being "ni ni" meaning night night when she is ready to go to bed. She is such a little sweet heart!

Playing with her rattle

Trevor has been working hard and is greatly enjoying his time off around the holidays.

I don't know what in the world I would ever do with out him!!! He is a great encouragement and inspiration. :) The most wonderful and loving husband and Daddy! Isabella has become a daddy's girl through and through. She will sit outside for hours just watching him work. And starts scooting across the floor as fast as she can to him when he gets home form work. It is so much fun to watch them spend time together because you can clearly see that you both are loving every minute of it.

'Helping' Daddy cut firewood.

Life for me seems to be over flowing with joy and happiness. All though all mothers and wives have some trials for me those baby kisses and my husbands hugs as he gets home form work makes everything well worth it and then some! I have been busy just about the house, trying to keep up with Isabella, and recently have managed to squeeze some sewing and a couple little craft projects (That have been waiting to be done for a very long time)! I have to keep this post short today but I am planing on doing another one soon.... well as soon as I can find time!

Isabella starting to crawl

It is so nice of you to have come by. Thank you and

I hope you have had a very

Merry Christmas!

Pictures from August

2010-09-04T17:42:00.010-04:00

Hello! How are all of you doing?

It is kind of hard for me to believe that I am doing a post so soon. It has only been a little over two weeks since my last!!!

Life here keeps rolling along. Every day seems to bring something new that is all it's own.

Parent hood is suiting Trevor and I just fine. :) We probably find it so enjoyable because we have such a well behaved baby. I found yesterday that if I sing along with the CD of Pachelbel's Canon it put Isabella to sleep in seconds vs. the 30 min. of rocking! I tried it again this today and had the same result. :)

Hmmm what does this taste like?

Isabella has really become interested in everything we are doing and wants to have a hand in it all!

Isabella has been pulling herself into a sitting position for a while now. A couple weeks ago I was playing with her on the bed and after she set up she let go of my fingers. She had a surprised look on her face like 'what am I doing???' at first. :) Then she moved and over she went. She has become much better at it since then.

One night I went outside to spend some time with Trevor while he was working on a project. As the shadows lengthened I enjoyed seeing the sunset and the moon shining in the sky. This picture does not do it justis!... But maybe it will give you some idea.

Meet the newest member of the house, Mr. Winston. He is a sweet kitty and has quite a personality. It is fun to set on the porch swing and watch him play... although some times I get the feeling he is eying my toes!!!

Missy does not know what to think of him. I do believe she is rather jealous.

Here are some more additions.

(but only for 7 more weeks, then they will be in the freezer)

We received 100 chicks on the 26th. They have gotten a lot bigger in the last week! They are not nearly as cute.

Isabella "helping" Daddy pick tomatoes, leaves, or anything else in arms reach.

:) So that is a little bit from things around here.

Oh and don't forget to go by and see Trevor's blog. He has been so excited about it and checks every night to see if anyone has looked at it or left him a comment. If you have a second please go by and drop him a quick note.

A quick update

2010-08-19T15:42:00.002-04:00

Isabella will be 17 weeks old tomorrow. She is growing so fast!

Just second ago I saw a little arm wave so I went to investigate. (Isabella had been taking a nap on our bed.) Sure enough I was greeted by a bright eyed little girl with legs kicking arms waving
and a face splitting grin.

Little things...

How they make my day!

Trevor has been working hard. He is getting ready to start another batch of meat chickens. Trevor is also starting a blog... although he as yet to do the first post. If you would like to know what is going on with the chickens drop in over there. There should be a post up before the end of this week. I have a link to it is listed in 'My Blog List'.

:) I'm doing really good. Not much is going on with me. I'm slowly working on getting things sorted and arranged around the house. It seems like every time I get rid of something there is five more pieces of stuff to fill it's place. Is there ever a end to the clutter???

Well dinner is waiting to be made and I just put the baby down to sleep so I better get to it while I have the chance.

:) Thank you for visiting! Please come again.

Sweet Times

2010-07-04T19:21:00.000-04:00

Hello,

Oh how things have changed in my life since my last post. How many wonderful memories have been acquired. Tears come to my eyes just thinking back on the past 10 week... Has it really been that long since Isabella was born? It seems like just yesterday that I got to hold her in my arms for the first time!

Our Dearest Little Girl

I do believe one of my favorite things to do as of late has been to just set and watch Trevor hold and play with Isabella. :) She is a little Daddy's girl!

~
Getting 'Loved-On' by Daddy

Isabella wants to either be feed, rocked and sung to, or bounced to sleep. At times it can take awhile (and by the end you are ready for a nap as well) but to have her warm little body snuggled up against you sleeping makes it worth it every time!

Nap Time

:) She is so sweet and cute. It would be hard to not be completely in love with her!

Her First 'Piggy-Back' Ride

Just in the last couple of weeks she has started entertaining herself for longer periods of time. I can put her in her Bumper Jumper and can get a little bit of work done while she plays. She is starting to able to work her fingers. :) It is so exciting watching her GROW. Every day I can see her changing more and more.

Playing in her Bumper Jumper

Motherhood...

:) I would not trade it for all the riches in the world! It suits my liking just fine. As early as I can remember I have always wanted to get married young and have children. I wanted to be a mama! Now that I am it still has not quite sunken in. Trevor says I've changed and become more 'motherly'. Me... I'm just so happy and at the same time a little scared. God has entrusted us with this little girl to raise. It is wonderful to know we have our families we can lean upon for support and advise but when it is said and done the great responsibility of raising her is all ours. Please pray for us as we seek to serve God and raise up a righteous and Godly generation.

Having Our Picture Taken

I was just swing on the front porch with Trevor. Looking out over the field and watching the sky start to change colors above the trees. I heard the wind chime softly sing in a slight breeze. Isabella was falling asleep on my shoulder. I listened to my wonderful husband talk. Trevor asked if we could have ever imagined the happiness and love we felt right then? And we agree that life holds so much more then our wildest dreams could ever hold. How wonderfully blessed we are! So many times we take what we have for granted. We live life looking toward the future wanting more than what we have been given and in the process loss the precise gift God has given us... TODAY.

Smiling at Daddy

And by the way...

Happy 4th of July!!!

Big news!

2010-05-28T20:40:00.000-04:00

Hey ya'll this is Trevor. I'm Thelma husband and I am doing a blog post for her. Well the big news around our place has been about a baby...

Our baby to be exact. The sweetest, cutest and most perfect baby girl was born on

April the 23rd at 10:29am.

Isabella Grace Castlebury

The labor and delivery went very well. We chose to have our baby at a birthing center, with a midwife, instead of at a hospital. The birthing center was awesome and we had very intimate and exciting birth.

This was taken 30 minutes after she was born.

She sure does sleep a lot.

Having a good dream I believe. What do babies dream about?

Thelma and Isabella on mothers day :)

Isabella and me on mothers day.

2 happy girls :)

She loves to cuddle.

Some people will lead you to believe that having children is a pain and tell you about how bad life now is, loss of sleep, and how life is now ruined since having a child. But don't listen to them. There's nothing like it and its all in what you make of it.

Spring chickens

2010-04-09T10:42:00.000-04:00

Wow! It has been over 6 months since I last posted. Trevor and I are doing very good. God has continued to bless us and our marriage. Well this morning I went to the post office and when I got home I decided to do a blog post on what I had picked up there for Trevor.

He now has 100 some chicks.

You might ask why, what for, or what brought this about?

Well you see...
Last year Trevor decided to give raising some meat chickens a try. So after reading Joel Salatin's book "Pastured Poultry Profits" and putting together a small brooder he ordered 20 Cornish Cross chicks. :) They are cute at first...

and then in my point of view they are just ugly as they start getting their fathers.

Missy would get so jealous of the Chicks and would demand Trevor's attention.

One day I went outside and found that the chickens had gotten out of their pen and Missy was quite happily trying to 'help' catch them so she ended up being put into the brooder till Trevor got home and caught the chickens. She did not like this at all! She sat there and gave me the most pitiful puppy eyes every time I passed her.

After getting out of their pen when no one was home we had 11 casualties, and one in critical care that ended up not making it.

Around week nine my dad and brothers came over to help with the butchering

And after thinking about it... Trevor wanted to try again.

2009-09-29T16:05:00.000-04:00

Trevor is getting old!!!

(Just to let you know... I plan on never turning 21 no matter how many birthdays I have)

On May the 6th Trevor we celebrated Trevor's 23rd birthday! It was a lot of fun!!!

My parents gave him some pictures.

I'm not sure why he's making this face but it sure is strange.

I got him something he likes.

Whats in the big box?

Here he's showing me how fast the world spins.

We put the world on a shelf.

Week 6

Trevor found these in the front yard and were not sure what they are.

A view down the driveway.

Grass that grew.

Our garden soon after it was planted.

Missy guarding the corn.

Thank to my wonderful husband who sweetly added all the text to the pictures for me! I hope you enjoyed. Next on the list.... hopefully an up to date post on present happenings!... or at least more recent pictures!

Have a wonderful day!

Week 3 & 4

2009-09-22T11:05:00.000-04:00

:) Week 3

Trevor went back to work :(

The sun set from the kitchen window.

:) On Saturday Trevor put up our mail box. We don't receive very much mail. :) Even the stores fliers we never shop at are a welcome find!

Trevor deciding where to dig the hole at.

:) Tapping in the dirt.

The last screw.

Missy giving her begging eyes. She wanted off her leash so she could chase the cows a cross the street.

(P.S. The phone company has been updating there lines.

In there working the mail box was ... Bumped.)

Week 4

Trevor would come home from work the next couple of weeks adding to the flower beds a little at a time. He all so put in a flag stones for a path. :) Which is VERY nice to have especially after it has rained!

The house from the front.

The view from the road.

Trevor setting up the sprinkler to water the grass seeds. :)

Trevor cleaning out between the trees along the Bull Run. :) It looks much better now.

Who needs a chain saw???

Well that's all I have time for today. Please do forgive me for taking me so very long to post! I'm not able to get a lot done on the computer and other things have been taking priority when I do have time to log on. Thank you very much to all who read and comment on my blog. I really enjoy hearing from you!!! I'm very sorry I'm not always able to reply promptly.

I hope you have a wonderful day(s).

:) Untill..... next time.

Week 2 of Married Life

2009-07-23T17:08:00.000-04:00

:) It is very hard to believe in less then a week Trevor and I will have been married for 4 Months! It has been Wonderful! We have both learned things about each other we had not known before we were married and for the most part I think they have been good. We both agree if the next 60 years are anything like the last 4 months... Wow, we have a lot to look forward to! There is not a thing in the world we have complain about (even though at times we still do) God has greatly blessed us!

Saturday morning after getting home from the honeymoon Friday night we realized we did not have any silverware! Trevor made do with a great BIG one :). So with this in mind we set out and spent all day in town buying the miss. things we needed. It was fun watching him try to eat!

Trevor had the whole next week off and dug right in to working around the outside of the house. It looked so much homier after he was done.

There was just clay around the house so he loosened it up and mixed in some top soil. :) I got to help him with this.

He had gone over to his parents land and picked up rock to frame out the flower beds.

He also worked to smooth out the yard and planted grass. You can see Missy our puppy happily following him around.
Later I think it was the beginning of the next week it rained and washed so he had to reseed.

Our very 1st Pizza! :) And oh was it good! I had never made a pizza from scratch before so it was a learning experience for me. It was fun! since then we have had one almost every week. Trevor claims they keep getting better but I think that first one was the best!

After pizza we pulled out one of the games someone had given us. :) I cheated by using my hand to hold up the tower while I pulled out the blocks... :) and Trevor still won! Thank you all who gave us gifts we really have appreciated them all!

On Saturday after a good and full week Trevor pulled out his guitar and played for awhile. I love listening to him play. It is so peaceful and relaxing!

So that was a look into our 2nd week of life together and the very first week at HOME! I hope you enjoyed it! So much has happened since then (although I don't know how it seems like it was just yesterday!) I will try to stay on top of posting and get you up to date. :) But till then have a wonderful week!

~Thelma

2009-07-17T11:47:00.000-04:00

Honeymoon Part 2!

Point Park and The Cravens House

The entrance to the park. I really like the way it looks. Very cool!

There was a stone wall running along the front by the road.

Here is Trevor by one of the staircases up into the tower by the main gate.

Since it was a civil war battle site there were lots of monuments at the park.

One VERY good looking man! :)

If you know of anyone selling a canon Trevor is in the market for one.

It was a beautiful day and not to hot. The view from the park looking out over Chattanooga was very good.

He wants any one he can get his hands on! :)

Further down there was another lookout and a trail leading to the Cravens House.

:) Can you guess who had the camera???

:) Some stairs leading down to the trail.

Some ugly buzzards we found feasting on another hiker. J/K!

We made it in time for lunch so we looked around and turned to hiked another hour with growling tummies back to the car so we could get some lunch.

The Honeymoon was a lot of fun and we have many memories from our VERY 1st trip!

So next on to life at HOME!!! :)

Have a wonderful day!

The Honeymoon

2009-06-12T14:19:00.000-04:00

The Honeymoon :)

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post!

Trevor planned the whole trip... He asked me if I wanted to help but I had so many other things going on to get ready for the wedding I asked him to do. :) So he turned it into a surprise I had no clue where we were going... :) and that was just fine with me. So the night before the wedding he told me his plans.... Here are some of the pictures from throughout the week....

We stayed at a bed and breakfast on Lookout Mountain in GA.
About 20 minutes from Chattanooga. All the days are blurred together... so the beginning of the week we walked/drove around Chattanooga greatly enjoying spending the time with each other and the joy of being married with the wedding behind us and the feeling we could breath again and not have to be always thinking about all that needed to be done in so short a time.

:) At last a much looked forward to vacation!!!

It was cold and windy! :) All the more reason to stick close to Trevor.

I think it was Monday that saw us on our way to Rock City but I'm not sure. This was by far our favorite place out of every where we visited. We spent to whole day there and had to recharge the camera batteries several times. All the different stone bridges and paths, the plants, the beautiful views, and the underground Mother Goose Village :) fueled the imagination... especially Trevor's. It was a lot of fun!

Another day... I don't have a clue what day it was we set out for ruby falls...
:) What a awesome God we have who has created all.

:) The Knitting Mill Antiques ended up taking most of a day. The building was really big. It used to be a Knitting Mill :) thus the name. We later went back and bought a couple of the things we found there. :) Trevor found some coins in one of the booths and called his dad to find out if they were over priced. :) It was a very good rainy day.

Did you know that there is a towing museum??? I did not till Trevor told me. We know a man that is in the hall of fame. :) And since we were there Trevor wanted to go and see it.

And along the week we had to do laundry so we spent some time in a laundry mat.

Here are some pictures of the bed and breakfast...

We stayed in the back corner. They had great service and the breakfasts tasted wonderful!

Thanks for dropping in!

The Wedding... part 4 :)

2009-06-09T10:39:00.000-04:00

Signing the marriage license

Trevor was keeping a close eye on it.

:) He's mine... ALL Mine!!! :)

The Greeting Line / Reception / Us leaving

We have lots of these pictures so here are just a few...

Quickly filling to a very full fellowship hall

I enjoyed meeting a lot of people Trevor knew and had told me about.

Consie's work of art. She did a WONDERFUL job!!! Need a cake? I can highly recommend her.

Food!

:) Thank you to all who helped in the getting ready and serving for the reception!

LD and Ashley

Stopping to have some pictures snapped.

Getting ready to throw the bouquet...

I managed to smack Linda in the face with it. (It was by accident.)

It stopped raining for awhile and gave us time to get away without getting really wet.

People lining up with bubbles and rose petals.

Us in the car and then away we went. :)

:) That's all folks... at least 'till next time.

Thank you for coming and looking. I hope you enjoyed the Pictures.

Trevor and I have been so very very blessed! :) Marriage has been Wonderful!!!

Next post... Some Pictures from the week after the wedding.

The Wedding... part 3 :)

2009-05-05T14:39:00.000-04:00

The Wedding Ceremony...

Dale and Lance going to light the candles.
(Nana is sitting in the chair awaiting her turn to be walked down.)

Benjamin and Lance pulling out the isle runner.

Benjamin seating my Mother.

Lance seating my Mother-in-law.

A handsome Groom waiting. (With the best man and pastors)

Collin and Adah

Sheppard and Ashley

Jon and Consie
I love there smiles!

Ashley, the matron of honor.
And at last we have a smile!!! :)

Ryan and Charity.
Ryan is trying to wait for her to walk with him and she is taking her job very seriously.

He gives up and leads the way.

:)

Me and my Daddy :)

Daddy giving me to Trevor :)

Dad and Benjamin doing a reading of 1st. Cor. 13

Pastor Franco

Pastor Mings

Charity was waving, talking to people, and playing with my flowers through out the ceremony. She was cute.

Trevor putting on my ring. :) Till Death death do us part...

Reaching for Trevor's ring

Kissing

In the back of the church after we have ran out.
:) I love the look on his face. We were sooo Happy (and still are)!

Leaving to walk around to the fellowship hall as the Congregation sang the last song.

It was raining so Trevor carried we around so i would stay all clean.

:) I'm getting closer to having all the pictures up!!! I'm looking forward to posting on the other things going on. Yesterday was Trevor's 23rd Birthday. :) It was a lot of fun getting everything together for that! We (manly Trevor) have planted a garden and grass around the house. It's a lot of fun to see the plants starting to come up and everything turning greener. After I finish the wedding I put up some pictures of things... Oh! and I still have pictures form the Honeymoon to share. I hope you have had a wonderful day and enjoyed looking at these pictures. Being married is so much better then i ever could have thought it could be. Trevor is such a blessing and encouragement!

The Wedding... :) part 2 (and still more to come)

2009-04-28T10:12:00.000-04:00

:) My Husband and I

Getting Ready :)

Anna and Charity before the Wedding

:) My Shoes (I had been seriously thinking about going with out them)

:) Mom and Dad

My Daddy

:) Brothers!!! Life would have an empty spot with out them!

Adah, Consie, and Me.

My Family :)

Left to Right: J.E.B., Benjamin, Dad, Sheppard, and Lance

My in-laws :) I love the look on Sawyer's Face.

My Family plus my Mothers Mother and My sister Consie's Husband and Children.

Thank you for taking a minute and stopping in. I hope you enjoyed it. Have a wonderful day!!!

:) The Wedding... part 1

2009-04-21T09:13:00.000-04:00

At last... I have some Pictures!!! :)

One very handsome Groom! :)

Groom and family

Trevor and his Dad

Trevor and his Mother

Ringbearer, Groom, and Flower Girl
Are they not so cute???
(Thank you VERY much for helping with Ryan's bow tie Sarah!!!)

Some good looking men

:) Good looking men at ease

Groom and Best man (his brother)

:) Playing

Waiting for the wedding to start...

The ushers

Guest book attendants

:) Getting everything ready Saturday morning...

Consie putting finishing touches on the cake.

:) Daddy with Flower Girl (who is also his youngest grandchild)

Cutting J.E.B.'s hair
:) Oh the things we sisters get to do.

My dad and brothers
Men hard at work preparing the food for the reception

And they did a very good job at that!

Thank you all who helped with the food!!!

The pew ends.
Adah and I had stayed up late Thursday night to get these put together and on. It was a lot of fun spending the time with her. I'm so glad she was able to come and help.

An old friend of the Family.
I used to sit on her lap in Church as a little girl.

Bethany the pianist.

Rahab playing the harp.

Due to the amount of time it takes to up load pictures I could not do many today... But more are on the way! It well probably be sometime next week before I again have access to the internet. :) I hope you have enjoyed these pictures.

2009-04-14T10:26:00.000-04:00

Hey! I do not have any pictures of the wedding yet... but I promise as soon as I get them I will share them with ya'll!

To those who have been waiting, I'm sorry it has taken me so long to do a post. Recently I have been a little on the busy side.

:) Today, I think I shall do a bit of catching up. Here are some pictures from the shower Ashley Stafford and her mother gave. (Thank you very much!)

Consie trying out the cake. :) The food was Fantastic!

Ashley Castlebury's turn drawing at game of wedding pictionary. Ashley Stafford and Shelli came up with this game.

The bottom half above is the picture Mrs. Castlebury drew. Ashley Stafford was the one who came up with this picture. She did not mean for Mrs. Castlebury to draw it. She purposely looked through to make sure she did not give it to Trevor's sister and oops she ended up giving it to his mother. Can you guess what it is???

We were given lots of very nice and some totally awesome gifts!

My Aunt Jan gave a short devotional and then my Grandmother shared some things with us.

Above is my Mom, Mrs. McGinnis, and my Mother-in-law talking with the other ladies.

I was very nervous throughout the shower but other than that, everything went wonderfully! Both Faith and Cold Spring churches also threw showers for us. (I have no pictures of them.) They were really nice and we also received many wonderful and very useful gifts.

We have been so blessed with friends and family who have really gone above and beyond to help in anyway they could. Thank you very much for everything! Without you I don't know what I would have done.

Have a wonderful day!

2009-03-19T08:53:00.000-04:00

We are down to single digit numbers!

:) Only 9 days left till the wedding!!!

Time is really flying past.

The House :)

2009-03-08T20:12:00.000-04:00

WOW! It has been a long time since I have posted. I'm sorry. Life has been very enjoyably busy! Well at least for the most part. :)
The wedding plans are all going well. There are still a lot of things left to do before March 28! :) It is hard to believe Trevor and I will be getting married in 19 days!
It has been forever since I showed you pictures of the house! Trevor has been working very hard on it. Week before last his boss, co-worker, and some friends told him they where coming down to help him and he needed to put together a list of things he wanted them to do. :) So he did. They installed the toilet in the bathroom, did a lot a painting, finished the railing on the porch, and I'm not sure what else. They were a lot help and I know it was real encouragement to Trevor.

Mr. Burns

Jon Burns

:) Playing after the work was done.

Collin painting in the bathroom

This weekend Collin and Mr. Castlebury helped with more painting. :) Trevor put in the bathroom vanity and sink and some lights.

OH! Last Sunday night it snowed!!! :) It was beautiful out! Trevor and I did not have to work so later in the day I went over to his house and we went in to Abbeville and applied for a marriage license. :) It was quite the trip. (... If you call ahead and ask what you need to bring and they say your social security card number they don't mean you just need to know it. They need paper work with your number it on it.)

:) Friday Pastor Tom (the pastor of the church the Castleburys attend) came and painted three sides of the house and some trim. :) I like this color a lot better than the color of the primer. Sunday afternoon Trevor took me over and showed me what had been done. :) It just keeps looking better and better.

:) Things are moving right along. We would really appreciate your prayers for us that everything goes well and that God would be given the glory in it all. He has blessed us so much! Without Him none of this would be.

:) Mostly Wedding Stuff

2009-01-27T12:10:00.000-05:00

With lots of help all the ivitaions are almost done! :)

Ashley Stafford spent several days helping me figure how we wanted them, getting all the supplies and stuff, :) And a late night getting most of them assembled. It was a huge help!

(Thank you Ashley!!! :) and L.D.)

:) Trevor very sweetly helped me finish putting them together one evening when he was over for dinner! Now all I have to do is the finishing touches. :)

Here are some pictures from shopping for suits with Trevor and his brothers. It is really hard to believe that that was over a month ago!!! Time is flying :)

:) Boys!

Saturday Consie and Adah went to the Castlebury's with me for their first dress fitting. :) It has been a long time since just the three of us did something together. It was a blast!!! :) Just as a general warning.... It might not be the greatest idea to put three happy sisters (who don't get to do much together due to... well life) in a very small space (my car) for and hour or so... They might become slightly goofy. :) Luckily, we made it through without to much damage done. Sisters are wonderful!!! :) Here are some pictures from our outing :) ...

:) Oh what Fun!!!

Consie had a dentist appointment about two week ago so I got to have Charity and Ryan at work with me for a little bit. They are also our flower girl and ring bearer. :)

And as far as things go around the UPS Store. We have just cut our hours back a little... :) We get to sleep in later!

Jan. 18th was Anna's 18th Birthday.

And I think that's all for now!

:) Have a Great Day!!!!!

Getting caught up. :)

2009-01-06T09:14:00.000-05:00

We did not have a cedar tree this year!!!

It's a lot easier to decorate a tree when the branches are strong enough to hold them up!!! :)

Trevor was so very sweet and helped me wrap the lights. It would have taken me forever without him!

Benjamin came up from Texas to pay us a visit over the holiday!!! :) I can't remember the last Christmas he was here for. :) It was GREAT to get to see him for a little while... :) He is so Funny!!! When he is around there is always more laughter through out the house.

Here is a picture of all my parents Children...

From left to right you have: Lance, J.E.B., Benjamin, Consie, Sheppard, Me, and Adah.

:) The whole Family minus Consie's Family...

Back row: Consie, Sheppard, and Benjamin. Middle row: Me, Daddy, Mom, and Adah. Up front: Lance and J.E.B. :)

On Christmas Eve all the family gets together, stays up way to0 late and opens presents. :) It's wonderful getting to spend this time with each other!!! Trevor came over this year and celebrated with us.

Here we are handing out gifts.

It's a blurry picture but here is mom with the oldest grandchild Christan. :) They are all getting so big!!!

Ryan chilling in Dads chair and enjoying the back massager. :)

Benjamin and Howard (Consie's Husband).

:) Charity, the youngest of the gremlins as Shepperd fondly enjoys calling them.

Consie had a dentist appointment this morning so she dropped Charity off to hangout with me for a little bit her at work. :) It was a lot of fun having her. I think Sam enjoyed it too!

Daddy taught us how to play set back. His mom and Dad used to play it a lot.

Daddy Reading the Bible before we opened any presents Christmas Day.

The most Wonderful man in the word (... Or at least I think he is)
proposed Christmas Eve. :) We have set the date for March the 28th, 2009... which is 81 days away!!! :) We have lots and lots to do!!! :) It's been a blast!!!

Mrs. Castlebury and I went shopping for fabric this Saturday. :) It took us literally all day but, we got a lot covered. We found all the material for my dress, the flower girls dress, and the bridesmaids dresses. :) Mrs. Castlebury was a huge help... I could NEVER have done it with out her!!!

News on the house... The Sheetrock is all hung and Trevor started putting up trim this last week!!! :) On Friday we went, picked out and ordered the hard wood floors and our wedding bands. :)

We would greatly appreciate your prayers. There is lots to get done and even more decisions to be made.

:) Have a great day!!!!

:) Oh at last...

2008-12-27T17:47:00.000-05:00

It's official! We are to be wed!!! :)

(And I'm the owner of the most beautiful diamond ring ever as of Dec. 24, 2008!!!)

Thanksgiving ~ Trevor's House

2008-12-08T09:03:00.000-05:00

I had wonderful Thanksgiving! :) Did you?

There is so much I have to be thankful for it's hard to know where to start.

:) Here are the top five... or so :)

God has greatly blessed me with a wonderful family!... I really need to work on letting them know how much I appreciate and love them! (especially Adah)
I have a group of Friends I would not trade for the world. They challenge, uplift, and encourage me to be all that I can be... Thank ya'll so very much!!!
I have a job I really enjoy doing. (Although someday I'd like to be doing something completely different full time.) I have great bosses and coworkers that are friends and we all get along wonderfully with each other. By the way...

:) The UPS crew has grown to cover the holiday work load. :) My little or well younger sister Adah has temporarily joined us for the Christmas rush. She is almost always happy, smiley, :) very gullible, and so very easy to tease. I'm really so happy about getting to work with her for a little bit this month! :)

She has been adding here own touches (the Christmas hat made to look like a tongue) to the store. Sam say she is definitely my sister... I wondered way in till I realized Anna and I had made the smiley face on the wall. It hangs on the above Josh's disk which is fondly know as the black hole. When ever Josh came to pay the bills he developed a dark cloud hovering above his head. Anna and I love fun projects... especially when we know they will get a laugh out of Sam. So, we thought we should do something to brighten up this corner. :) I think Adah's addition adds a lot! What do you think of it???

And last but not least is Trevor... :) He is wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!

:) I have enjoyed the last 5 months soooo much!!! He comes over to my house, I go to his, and we go to church in Cleveland most every Sunday. The time has gone by really really fast. It is so exciting to watch Trevor build his house. He is working very hard to make it as nice as he can. It's fun to sit over there watching him work, although when it's as cold out I don't stay as long. He puts a lot of thought into how things will look. :) I love listening to him tell me about how he is doing this or that to make it all match or how he has seen something done and likes the way it adds something to the house. :) Every time he asks me things like 'what kind of vent fan do you want in the bathroom' or tells me 'we need to decide what color to paint the outside of our house' it causes my heart to flutter with joy!

On Thanksgiving my family got to come out and see the house for the first time. :)

(Dad was taking a picture of the plumbing so he had Lance hold a box over a the window.)

The house is 24' by 32 which is something like 768 square feet.. :) I think.

I'm glad they got to come see it. :)

I hope you all have a good day. We have such a great and so very wonderful God. He's works things out better then we could every imagine and way better then I deserve.

Christmas is here at the Ups store!

2008-12-02T13:43:00.000-05:00

Last week I got out all the Christmas decorations and put them up with Sam's help. Normally Anna and I do it but she was in Florida visiting family for Thanksgiving.

Untangling the garland and pretending to be innocent

I cutout and put together some paper stars. :) We have lots of paper here to work with during the slower times of the day.

I don't think Sam really liked me working on top of the shelves. :) I would have paid money to have a pictures of some of his facial expressions.

Ashley Castlebury made some really cute mittens that helped finish everything off.

It was Fun :)

Out of curiosity which do you like more

Colored

White lights?

Have you put up your dectorations up yet???

Trevor come over last night and helped me finish up the lights of the front of the house. It was cold but a lot of fun.

Have good day. :)

Trip to Alabama :)

2008-11-16T21:02:00.000-05:00

Hello! :) We had an wonderful trip and are very glad to be back home safely. Although I must admit I really miss seeing Trevor in the morning and having devotions with him. We got back home from our trip Saturday morning after driving through the night. :) Need I say that it was a rather long eight hours? I'm so glad we did that instead of taking up the whole day Saturday though!!!

Grandpa's house

Here is a short time line of our visit to the grandpa's nut farm :) ....

On Tuesday we traveled most of the day and got caught up with everyone.
Wednesday we had a thanksgiving lunch and the boys goofed off for a little bit.
Thursday morning Adah, Lance, Trevor, and I headed out to do some shopping. :) We found some great sales on clothing and had a blast. After lunch we went to the beach. Later that evening we all gathered around the table for a loooong game of dominoes. :)
After waking up tired on Friday, we gathered pecans off the forest floor. In the afternoon grandpa pulled the tractor out and revved up the tree shaker and shook a few pecan trees with it. Down fell some pecans, leaves, and half the tree limbs. And back to work we went.... Then we strenuously labored in the cotton field.

:) We were not the only visitors that were there. All of grandpa's brothers (He is the eldest of four boys) had come for thanksgiving. It had been a long time since we had seen some of them. And all of them have a teasing streak in them!!! :) It was so much fun having them there and listening to them talk about 'the good old days'!

Gifford (grandaddy), Jerry, Dewayne, and Hugh

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

Behind the house is ten acres, a man (the son of the man he bought the land from) is leasing form Grandpa. He alternates between planting Cotton and potatoes there. :) This year it was Cotton and it looked beautiful!

The Cotton field

Before leaving Trevor strenuously labored trying to find the perfect pieces of cotton to pick and bring home to his Mom and Sister.

Looking out of the pecan trees toward the cotton

:) The orchard was a lot bigger than it looked. The camera could not take a picture wide enough for you to see, but there were rows and rows of more trees to the right. There is about 40 acres of pecan trees. It was fun walking through them with Trevor :) and Lance who was faithfully to quick tag along with us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:) Thanksgiving dinner was so good! :) We ate leftovers for the rest of the week.

Trevor and I at the table.

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

After lunch Uncle Dwayne dared JEB to ride his bike backwards. JEB kept working on it till he got it down. He almost ran into several trees though. :)

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

The beach was really nice. The boys jumped right in and had a lot of fun. They found a jelly fish... It was really cool looking but I did not stick around long looking at it, knowing that JEB finds a great amount of joy in scaring people. I found some pretty sea shells I'm looking forward to putting to use. :) Time flies when you are having fun!!! :(

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

The girls won!!!

We played girls against boys in dominoes... It was fun! Trevor and I were playing together so he was on the girls team... :) He was teased a lot for it. Adah kept offering advice on which dominoes my Uncles should play... And of course it was by accident she had seen them. As the game wore on it got a lot worse. :) It really started bugging Trevor. The game finally ended around 12:15. It was a blast! The ending score was 2864 for the girls and 386 to the boys.

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

Picking up pecans was relaxing. (Except on the really humid days) Grandaddy has several different tools to pick them up with. It was a lot of fun trying them out.

Lance using the pinwheel pickerupper

Uncle Jerry hauling leaves and pecans after emptying out the pinwheel pickerupper.

Grandpa sorting through the nuts for the bad or cracked ones.

More sorting

This was cool to watch! Grandpa would push the nuts over the edge (there is a metal flap that is bent diagonally that you can't see in the picture that the pecans fell against) then the fan would blow all the bad ones out and the good ones would fall into the tub because they are heavier.

The tree shaker

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

:) The trip was a blast!!! I'm so very glad we were able to go.

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

Trevor's Place

:) It is looking more and more like a house every time I see it!!! It's really exciting to see how it is coming along. Sunday, Trevor and I had fun looking through paint colors for the outside... well at least I was really enjoying it. I hope he did too!

:) Hello everyone.

2008-11-08T22:05:00.000-05:00

:) Have I mentioned lately how much I really enjoy having Trevor around?... I do so very much!! He adds a great deal of joy and happiness when ever He comes around.

Most of the time my dearest younger brothers play well together...

:) But when Trevor comes around their protective natures hit with full force.

They snuggle up as close as they can to me on the couch thus trying to provoke his jealousy. :)

:) I'm so blessed with the family God has given me.

Monday Trevor is joining my family on a road trip. We are going to visit my grandpa ( my mothers dad) in Alabama. :) I'm looking forward to it!! And I'll try my best to do a post on it after we get back. :) Have a great day ya'll.

Oh and PS all the pictures were staged :)

Teen outing :)

2008-10-21T10:38:00.000-04:00

Hello :) and good afternoon. Are ya'll having a good day? :0) I do hope so!

This last week has been rather fun! I completed a skirt I had been working on off-and-on all week and am quite happy with how it turned out. :) I used a pateren for making it and am looking forward to starting on another one and doing a little tweaking to it.

Saturday Faith had a teen outing... :)

The weather could not have possibly been any better. The leaves where changing colors, the air was crisp (but not freezing), the sky was blue. :) and Trevor came!!!

We went to Sky Top to pick/buy some apples.

And did a good bit of goofing off in front of the camera.

It was a blast!

~~~~

Then, after finishing there we headed out for DuPont Forest.

Twice a year once in the spring and again in the fall the FODF (Friends of DuPont Forest) offer shuttle bus rides to some of the water falls as a fund raiser.

Not all of the the teens were able to make the trip. :( We missed them.

We were told over and over not to step on any wet rocks because when wet they become very slippery. Trevor and I saw one guy who proved this point quite well. Poor guy, it was chilly out and he was totally soaked. We saw him again about thirty minutes after he had fallen in and he looked miserable!

:) I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Have a great Day!!!

Birthdays @ the UPS Store... :)

2008-10-13T13:12:00.000-04:00

This last week both Sara and I reached the completion date of nineteen years on earth... :) We are now twenty!!!

Cake, candles,

custom made birthday cards,

balloons, free lunch, and "Happy Birthday!!!" banners!

+ being thoroughly spoiled by Sam

= Some very happy females around here.

:) Thank you!

October 8, 2008

2008-10-13T12:03:00.000-04:00

Wow I'm getting old!!! I am now 20!

Here the pictures of the Home party... :)

Little brothers watching the gifts being opened.

Lance pulled out a bat man mask which everyone had to model for a picture.

The thought and care they put into the gifts is slightly overwhelming.

Trying on a totally awesome jacket from Adah. :)

Trevor gave me a beautiful necklace and a charm for my bracelet. :) And lots of hugs and kisses... The Hersey kind of course. :)

After that came a game of risk... A very long game of risk!

JEB in his own little world. :)

Wow! At work on Wednesday, Ashley and L.D.'s Wednesday night, Home Thursday evening, and then the Castlebury's Friday night; I have had a full week of people celebrating with me. You have made it a very special and memorable birthday. :) Thank ya'll very much!!!

I have been greatly blessed with wonderful friends and family. Hmm have I been the friend I ought to be for them??? What can I do for them that I have not been doing? Do I show them how much they really mean to me? After this last week I feel very well, undeserving.

~~~~~~~~

I have a question... How do you meekly or modestly receive a gift and at the same time show you truly are thankful for it?

You did nothing to deserve it yet they put thought, time, and money into it.

Do you have any suggestions???

It is one of those rainy days today.

2008-09-26T08:38:00.000-04:00

:) I went to bed last night with all my bed room windows opened. :) To my great delight this morning I woke up (about an hour before my alarm clock went off) to the sound of rain on the metal roof and its’ fresh crisp smell in the air. :) It's on days like today that I want to curl up with a good book by a big window. I love the way all the colors seem to almost glow against the gray sky when it is raining lightly and intensify when the sun does first come out and everything is still wet.

:) Starbucks is busy this morning.We will probable be pretty slow this morning here at work. Today, after I get off I need to finish up some things at home then I'm planning on going over to the Castlebury's for a little bit. :) I'm looking forward to see what Trevor has done. :) Every day by something he might say or do I'm reminded how very undeserving I am of his love and affection.

:) Looking around all that is surrounding me I know that I have really been blessed. There is nothing I have done or could possible do to be worthy of it. I could skip with joy at the thought... Oh what a wonderful and merciful God I have!!! :)

Have a wonderful day!

Watching the boys work!

2008-09-23T21:14:00.000-04:00

Friday and Saturday I was over at Bull Run (The road Trevor is building the house on.) having fun watching him work.

:) How would you like to have this guy building you a house??? Thankfully he had lots of people to keep an eye on him. :)

I showed up Friday morning and Trevor gave me a tour. :) Then I went flower picking and he and his brothers started back to work. Trevor had no vase for me to put these weeds in, so a coil of nails was used.

His dad and brothers helped a lot!!! :)

By the time they left Saturday evening this is what it looked like. :)

Monday and Tuesday Trevor claims to have walked in circles around the house, blowing a trumpet seeing if it would fall down. He was glad it didn't. (I highly recommend doing a blog post with Trevor for the first time late at night. It's a LOT of FUN!!!) I personally think he might have done a little work though. Like the porch off the front...

:) Trevor helped with this post. He would sit there and snicker while trying to read my scrambled miss spelled words out loud... :) He has a very happy contagious way about him when He is getting sleepy. It was a lot of fun doing it. :)

I really like the first picture. What do you think of it???

Have a wonderful day ya'll. :)

Trip to Rock Hill and Other Fun Things :)

2008-09-15T11:34:00.000-04:00

:) Hello!!! How are you doing today? I'm at work watching the rain fall outside. We have been pretty slow this morning. Anna and I have been working on cutting business cards and finishing up a printing job for Bryson Middle School. :) It's been nice.

:) I'd like you to meet my Uncle Henry and Aunt Brenda.

(My dad is the youngest of four boys. Uncle Henry is the middle one of the older three.)

Thursday afternoon (right after I got off of work) I went home to pick up Adah, throw some clothes in a bag, and hit the road heading toward Rock Hill.

Looking back at pictures I'm reminded how much Adah's hair fits her. She would just not be the same if it had been straight!!! Last night we (Adah, Lance, JEB, and I) went over to Sheppard's apartment for a while. Adah was trying her best to get Sheppard to laugh by tickling his toes. After doing this for about a minute, she decided it was not going to work so started attempting to tickle his ear with some of her hair... Her hair was just curling around the end of her finger, and she could not see what she was doing. And all the while Sheppard was setting there with this "What in world does she think this is going to accomplish?" look on his face. :0) It was so funny watching her try. It looked something like this...

Anyway... We arrived around 5 and went for a walk around the lake.

Uncle Henry and Aunt Brenda live next door to where my dad's parents used to live. Granddad and Grandma have both passed away and the brothers decided to sell the land.

Aunt Brenda said the present owner is very nice and has given them an open invitation to come over and walk around any time they would like.

Here Uncle Henry is pointing at the fish eating bugs off the water.

:) Later Adah and I went shopping with Aunt Brenda while Uncle Henry went to his Bible study group. I had brought along a sewing job that had to be done by Saturday morning and was taking longer then I had thought it would to finish it. So after we had gotten back to the house, eaten, and played some games, Adah called it a night and did a little sewing.

~~~

Friday morning we went swimming. :) Uncle Henry gave diving lessons. I'm not very good at, and Adah had never dived before. :) After about two hours in the water, (Most of which was spent diving over a pole Uncle Henry was holding for us.) we are both much more confident about jumping head first in. Adah did suffer from a really bad belly flop and that set her back a little. It was fun!!! :)

I went back to sewing and Adah helped Aunt Brenda fix lunch.

It was very good.

Afterwards, we all sat around and talked for a couple of hours. :)

Adah looks a little tired.

Adah had the camera most of the trip. She took a ton of pictures.

After about the 6th picture in a row Uncle Henry said he was done smiling and thus the pouty lip. This of course led in to making faces....

Uncle Henry wrote instructions on a faster way to get home.... :) Us being two girls (combined with him saying get on to I-77 and leaving north and south off the directions) we took a slightly longer way home. Then...

:) going through Spartanburg we start hearing a well, not so healthy sound coming from under the hood on the passengers’ side. The temperature gauge shot over to Hot and the charge light came on. As quickly as we could we got off of I-85 and turned in several circles trying to find a place to stop. Coming to rest at a gas station we popped the hood having not a clue as to what we were looking for. There was a pool of coolant forming on the drivers’ side and without much looking we found pieces of a belt. :) Now having something with which to answer the 'well,... do you know what’s wrong?’ question. We called daddy.

(Dad's work truck had broken down that morning. He had been pulled over in a school zone for speeding, but was only given a warning. Mom was at a church ladies meeting and had the truck. When we called, Dad was at home with no way to leave.)

I texted Trevor after I got off the phone with Dad. He called me a couple minutes later. Then he called Dad. He had just got off of work and sweetly came and rescued us from have to sit longer in a very hot car. OUR HERO!

I finish the sewing job just in nIck of time and delivered it Saturday morning. :) I was very glad to have that one done!!!

Then later Daddy, Sheppard, Lance, JEB, and I went and picked up my car. Sheppard finished up the paper work and picked up the key for his apartment on the way home. :) We got home and Sheppard's stuff started being loaded into his truck. Adah, Lance, and JEB all went with to his apt. to drop it off and have a look around. :) I caught up on some of the sleep I had lost due to the deadline of the sewing project.

:) My car was taken to the mechanic Monday. Tuesday was a rather hectic heap of schedule combinations. The car was fixed and mom dropped a very thankful me off to pick it up Tuesday around 5 after a very full day of shuffling. I'm VERY glad to have it back!

(... and it was only gone for four days. I don't know how you did without your truck for months Trevor!)

So that's what my weekend was like. :) Lots of fun, though I do hope it does not happen again anytime soon.

Sorry this post is so long.

Have ya'll been having a good week?

Have a good day!!! :)

Creation Museum 2008 :)

2008-09-11T13:19:00.000-04:00

Trip to the Creation Museum
August 29-31 2008

Hello! :) This is the group that went tho the museum. We left Friday morning and spent the day in the cars riding. :)

We arived at the campground (I think...) around 5.

Our camp site was on a hill so everything was slanted. :)

Looking through the pictures there dad must have had shaky hands cause all of them are rather blurry.

Trevor and his pillow... :) He was teased a little.

Saturday we visited the museum.

Here are some pictures. :) Hope you enjoy.

What a fine looking sister and brother!

Sam says he remembers these from when he was young.

Dear Old Dad!

It was a GREAT trip and I'm really glad I went...

Who is sneaking up on us with a camera?

How big is a cubit anyway?

Is this the first condo complex?

Please watch your step as you disembark from the ark!

I'm leaving to visit my aunt and uncle in Rock Hill right after work Today. I have to leave before I can finish this, :) therefore some of the comments are from my co-workers. I'll post on our trip some time next week. :)

:) Have a great day.

My Week

2008-08-26T11:48:00.000-04:00

:) Hello. I don't know about you but, I am really enjoying this rain we are getting. I'm praying it keeps on going for a couple of weeks (and of course hoping it's just at night ). Have you been having a good week so far??? I hope you have. Mine has been good.

Here is a random review of my past week.

:) Yesterday, I got some things done around the house that where needing to be done (my shower cleaned, flowers planted, a rock wrapped in wire to make a necklace pendant, Adah wet with water balloons. :) You know all those important things.
Sunday, Collin chaperoned Trevor and I up to church because my sister and all my brothers were gone. (Thanks again Collin) The services where really good. We did a little eating, reading, talking, sitting on the porch... :) It was a good day.

Saturday, I worked with Sam for a couple of hours then went over to the Castleburys for the remainder of the day. Mrs. Castlebury and I tested the soil in her garden (it was lots of fun) and planted broccoli. :) I had a blast helping Trevor wash his truck (and spraying him with the water hose as often as I could get away with it and him still let me have the hose). His mom and sister made pizza and we all watched 'Still Standing' while eating supper in the living room.
Friday was Lydia's eighteenth birthday! (If any of you should happen not to know she is my cousin.) After work, I picked up my younger siblings and we all went to Frankies Fun Park to play, fellowship, and celebrate her birthday with a group of friends. (Did anyone take any pictures???)
Thursday evening, I went and spent some time with Ashley Stafford (I've been at the Castlebury's or Trevor has been at the house a lot recently, so Ashley and I have not done much together). Nathan and Stacia were in town for Lydia's birthday, (I think) so LD was hanging out with them and some of his sisters at the drag strip. After they got back, we played cards and stuff. It was late when everyone was leaving so, I just spent the night over there.
Wednesday, I rode up to church with my family. :)
And last Tuesday, Trevor came over for supper and did some work on my stairs. :)

Everybody was out watching Trevor work.

Little Brothers :)

Have a great day!!! :)

Faith Independent Baptist Church's VBS 2008

2008-08-19T09:13:00.000-04:00

:) I really enjoy VBS at my Church. Kids running around with lots of little smiles on their faces (well for most part). Who can resist enjoying it?!! Here are pictures :)

Getting the back of the auditorium ready.

Adah and Stephanie

Laura and John helping make animals (spiders and such) with pipe cleaners.

Lance and Josiah cutting boards to make cutting boards. The children worked on putting a verse on them as a craft and got to take them home at the end of VBS.

VBS Stated on Monday and went through Friday. I was only able to make it up for two of the nights. And really enjoyed the lessons each of those nights.

The lessons were on the 7 C's :

Creation
Corruption
Catastrophe
Confusion
Christ
Cross
Consummation

Each year dad tries his very best to get the teens involved and active in VBS with the adults more in the the background watching and making sure everything is running smoothly.

Kids singing 'I Will Never March In The Infantry'.

And of course you can't forget 'Deep And Wide'. :)

:) I don't know who was heading up the skits this year but, they did a great job.

:0) The ones I saw were really good.

Everything going on was supposed to reinforce the lesson for that night. Night #3 was the flood so, the kids had blue jello that they could put animals in for their snack.

The teens watching the children play.

We got eaten up by mosquitos. :) But, it was still a ton of fun playing with them.

Jacob using the insect repellent.

:) If you know my dad very well you know this is one of his favorite games to play.

:) He likes playing with a beach ball because he finds it a lot easier on his hands to hit the ball and then even the little kids can play and thus, a much more enjoyable and fun game.

Some people have asked me if any of the kids got saved... The answer is, I don't know. I was not there for the last night which was on salvation. :) I do know though, that last year we had several which included some of the church kids.

Thank you for taking the time to look through the the pictures.

:) I hope you enjoyed them. Have a wonderful day!

:) Work, Coffee, Hemp, and Flowers (what I've been working on)

2008-08-08T09:33:00.000-04:00

Hello. How are ya'll doing today? :) So far my day has been wonderful. We have a great, wonderful, and awesome God! This week up at Faith we are having VBS. :) It has been fun. We took some pictures but I don't have them with me so, I'll do a post on it sometime next week. But for now, here is little bit of what I've been doing.

:) Does this look familiar??? We have some really BIG print jobs for some schools we are working on here at work. Dear crazy old Sam (as Anna affectionately calls him) has been doing a great deal of the work. The printing is going well. As of right know we've only called the printer tech. once and he was able to fix the problem the first visit.

:) Sam went to Starbucks this morning and came back with some goodies!!!

Thank you Sam!!!

The last couple of weeks I've had the urge to make something... At times it can be rather interesting what I end up with. A couple of years ago Aunt Ola (my moms youngest sister) taught me how to make hemp jewelry. :) It's really easy, all you are doing is tying knots. It has been awhile since I have made any so I thought it was about time. I don't like wearing it, it itches my wrist and neck and drives me crazy! I enjoy making it and giving it away. :) Let me know if you would like any.

The bracelet above is my favorite pattern. :) Trevor very sweetly held the end of it and handed me beads when I was working on it over at his house Tuesday night. It was a really big help. :) Thank you Trevor.

These two are just random. I think the one below looks like smiley faces.

The UPS dress code is black or tan(... I've almost worn all of my tan skirts out. :)). So I made one. It looked rather plain so I decided to add some flowers. I bought a black skirt about a year ago that had flowers on it which is where I got the idea. I've been wanting to try it for awhile so I gave it a shot. Here is how it came out.

:o) I like this flower the best. And I'm very happy with the way it turned out. :) I might do it again sometime.

(Shhhh Adah's birthday is coming up. Do you think it would be something she would like???)

:) Have a great day!

Today at the UPS Store

2008-07-23T11:55:00.000-04:00

Hello I'm at work and at the moment it's kind of slow. (.... and of course no sooner had I typed that when customers started coming through the door.) We are in the middle of a huge copying job for Bryson Middle School. Would you like to see what we are doing???

Sam set up a table for us to lay everything out on while we are working. :) It was very sweet of him.

Hmm... let see. We have four differant colores of card stock that all have the samething on them. We get to make up LOTS of little piles with one of each of the four colors.

Then we combine them with the 22 page handbook that prints off in sets of 25 and put them into a small box.

So far we've got 550 sets done so that leaves 950 left to do. Well, Sam just got back with more boxes so back to work we go... :) Never mind I get to go home!!!

My mother has tried time after time to teach us that it is very bad to stick signs on people... :) We still do it anyway. This is the one Sam put on me this morning... It says, 'Smile. It makes people wonder what you are up to!'

(Mommy it's all Sam's fault.... :) well mostly!)

~At last!~ :)

2008-07-21T08:49:00.000-04:00

WOW!!!

I hardly know were to start... First off, let me say that we serve a great and mighty God!!! He truly knows whats best for us and can work things out beyond our wildest dreams.

What was the others news?... Well on the 27th of June Trevor called me and told me He had just talked to my father and we were officially courting! He went on to tell me about the piece of land He had bought from his Dad etc... Wow! :0) I was in an over joyed shock!!! You know the feeling don't you? It took several days for the surprise to wear off and I started to realize just what 'We're courting' meant. :) I can see him every week!... More than just once a week!!... We can talk and be looking at each other!!!... We can spend time together with our families!!!! :0) You get the idea.

(Trevor has a great smile and a even better heart.) :)

Trevor has been coming up to Faith with me on Sundays and spending the afternoon with us there. Then there is eating dinner at least once a week with our families. :0) At times it can get a little tiring... Oh, but it is so worth it!! My siblings have been taking great delight in doing "their job." (Trying their best to always be sitting in between us, listening very intently to our conversations, and then snicking around the house after he leaves about everything we said or did.) It's fun just watching them get to know him a little bit better. (Although at times they can be right down annoying and I really wish they would just go find something else to do and let us be in peace.)

I got a puppy!

His name is Duke. He recived a bath and flea collar Friday so hopefully He'll be a little less itchy. He is a sweet little guy and is learning fast.

:) Although he still thinks he should be allowed inside like everyone else and tries quite hard to slip in when your not looking.

:) You know how when you are talking to someone and at the end of the conversation they say something like 'I hope it all works out like you want it to.'? I have plans and goals for the future but I am OK with the Lord stepping in and fixing them for me. :) I know his plans for me are far greater, higher, and without doubt out of this world better then any of mine. :) Trevor and I get to continually reminding each other of this.

:) I hope everything is going well for you. Have a great day!!!

~Good Morning~

2008-07-02T08:52:00.000-04:00

I opened the front door Tuesday morning to go to work...

:) Instead, I checked the clock to make sure I still had time, grabbed a camera and went for a quick walk. It was simply too beautiful a morning to pass up a little time outside. My dad enjoys gardening. He also prefers plants that produce food. The flower beds around the house are made up of fruits and vegetables. :) Dad likes them being near the house where he can keep an eye on them. ( He always finds the first one ripening and watches it so he can eat it before anyone else finds it.) These are the pictures I took.

Here are the grape, muscadine, and scuppernong vines.

:) Don't they make you want to try one!???

These are the strawberry plants in front of the house. We have three strawberry patches altogether. The other two are in the garden and down by the lake.

Sheppard has headed up and greatly helped dad with most of the planting. He has been doing a lot of reading on herbs, forest gardens, etc. This is his small herb garden by the house. :) (And therefore close to the kitchen.)

Here are his tomatoes. The tomato plants he got are Cherokee purple, Green Zebra, and I think a Hungarian...? Well a Hungarian something-or-another. If you know what the rest of name is please let me know. They tried the Green Zebra and the Hungarian one last night and they all really liked them. (which he made me try... I greatly dislike tomatoes!!!)

The blueberry bushes were move from the front yard to the dam, you can't see them very well in the picture but they are quite loaded down with berries.

:0) That means blueberry muffins are on the way!!!

With all of Dad and Sheppard's planting, JEB caught the planting fever and made an addition of some watermelons and sweet banana peppers.

And on a whole new note...

My cousin's youngest little boy has been staying with us for almost a week now.

Hayden (3 years old)

His brother Hunter (who is 4) was born with half a heart and under went heart surgery last week. Everything thing went really good and he is recovering faster then they had thought he would. The doctors said he might need to stay in the hospital up to six weeks but, are now talking about sending him home this weekend. :)

:) Watching Lance 'look after' Hayden has been fun. He has not ever spent a whole lot of time with a little kid. :) He really does not have a clue what to do with them.

:) Oh boy-oh-boy, do I have more news... but for now it will have to wait for another day. :)

:0) Have a great day!!!

Trip to Wolf Lake

2008-06-22T23:06:00.000-04:00

:) Hello I'm glad to be back in town again... although I really would not have minded staying a little longer. Hey, but I can get cell phone reception now!!! :)

On Wednesday, we (Consie, Howard, the four children, Vanessa, and I) left SC with a car loaded down with food (and very, very yummy food at that!).

Sunday we returned... :) Here are some pictures from our little trip I hope you will enjoy.

We stayed in a very nice huge house on Wolf Lake in NC. The weather was awesome the high was 68, at night it dropped to about 45... :) and best of all the water felt absolutely wonderful!!!

The room I stayed in

:) I had a room inside of the house all to myself (+ Charity for a couple of nights.) It was a great place to curl up and read in the late mornings... :) I don't think I woke up before 8 once while we were there. It was nice for a change.

Howard reading

The house had a great view off the back porch. Which was also a good place for reading, thinking, working on sudoku puzzles, :0) or just doing nothing.

Just in case you might have wanted to know here is a random fact... I really like porches!!!

The Weather really was about prefect.

On Saturday we spent a good bit of time on the pontoon boat just having fun.

:) I love look on Ryan's face.

I was in the tube and the kids were watching from the back of the boat.

The guys stopped to swim for a little bit. Then they drifted the boat over where some trees had fallen into the water and went about fishing.

Here is the fish Vanessa caught.

The lake was really clear and you could see the fish swimming around toward the bottom. There were some really big ones down there.

After getting wet I was a little chilly and Vanessa very sweetly let me wear her dry shirt. While they were fishing I found a comfortable place and continued reading my book (Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen)... with a couple interruptions consisting of a little boy, tree branches, and Caroline with a camera. It was a lot of fun!!!

:0) And of course, before we left we had to have some family pictures taken.

:) Thank you Consie!!!

So, after hearing about my trip would you like to go???

~Oh it's just another boring day... :)

2008-06-18T08:59:00.000-04:00

Hello. I trust you are having a wonderful day. :) I am!!! After work I'm leaving town for a couple of days and am really looking forward to it.

(I will miss people though... well at less most of them.) :)

Sunday it poured at our house for a little bit. The weather has been really dry recently and we needed rain, but in the process it washed the ruts in our driveway deeper.

My car does not like them at all! :(

Last week when watching Trevor look at some of the pictures I had taken with his camera, I realized I had left out several random but quite exciting things to watch while they were happening in May. Here is one of them.

Our driveway is not in the best of conditions right now. A long time ago the culvert running from the pond to the creek started caving in. Since then it has been eroding away. (Dad is planning on fixing it when he has the time and money.)

Around the 10th of May, the propane man came to fill back up our tank and was trying to back up to the house. (He was a new guy and had not been to our house before.) I feel very sorry for him it really was not his day. He backed the front right tire into the hole pictured above....

He called a tow truck to come pull him out. About 15 minutes later the guy called him back to let him know it would be awhile, because he had lost his keys and was having trouble finding them.

In the end it all turned out OK. :) Daddy came to the rescue with the tractor and pulled him out. He turned around and drove up without any problem.

(I think I slightly embarassed the poor man taking pictures.)

What would we ever do without our daddies!?

Lance

2008-06-05T15:48:00.000-04:00

Tuesday after picking up my daddy from work I came home to a little brother who started working quite hard in a attempt to get me to cut his hair (Which is something I told him I would do a little over a week ago)... while I was sewing and talking on the phone with Trevor.

:) He started out by calling me endearments and rubbing my back...

When it became evident this method was not working too well he dashed off to get the cloth we use to keep the hair (for the most part) off the neck and out of the back of their shirts and started dancing about the kitchen using it as a cape and pretending to be Count Dracula.

:) Very funny to watch.

After about five minutes of this behaviour he once again was on the run.

:) This time after the scissors and comb...

I gave in and started chopping off his hair. He has started turning all curly on top and it makes cutting it difficult. It did not take long before I sent him off to wet down his head.

:) All the while J.E.B. was enjoying the show immensely while taking pictures. Most of them were of himself making faces. If you were to have walked in, I'm pretty sure you would have thought we had escaped from the mad house.

I can't help but laugh when I see these pictures of him looking it the mirror after I had finished.

He was thanking me for cutting it and telling me he liked it while make different faces. I'm not really sure if I should believe him. What do you think???

Oh life is never boring with brothers around.

Lance is a great to have about. He is a bookworm, has overwhelming self control and discipline (Except for when it comes to teasing Adah, then he just can't seem to stop himself), is a endless source of comedy and laughter mixed with a contagious smile, and in many ways is a challenging encouragement spiritually. I can't imagine what our family would be like without him.

I hope you all have had a good day.
:)

My Room...

2008-05-29T15:05:00.001-04:00

:) Good morning.

Trevor told me about three months ago that I should to do a post on my room. :) I thought today might be a good day to show you around a little. I moved out of the house to a room above the barn (pictured above) about three years ago. :) And no it does not have a bathroom.

You can't see it, but at the bottom of the hill there is a creek. I love curling up with a good thought-provoking book ( :) Especially in the cool evenings of fall with the rustling of the leaves in the trees.) and hearing the water trickling over rocks.

It's really is not as cluttered as it looks... or at least I hope not!
If it is someone please tell me so.

:0) I'm helping Sheppard store some of his furniture.
The book shelves, end table, chair, bed frame, and lamp are all his. (o:

For the most part I'm very happy with it. There are a good many things I'd like to change (like the color of paint on the walls), :) but for now it's home.

:) Have a great day!!!

Random Facts and Tid-Bits

2008-05-23T13:42:00.000-04:00

Hello!!!

About two and a half weeks ago our computer here at work picked up a virus off a memory stick or flash drive and proceeded to crash. A lot of what we do involves using this computer so it has been quite interesting to say the least. Almost everything has been reloaded and is running. :) We are getting to learn where to find and file things all over again. :) lots of fun... j/k!

:) We had are Homecoming service Sunday at Church. It was very uplifting!!! :)

:) I got two fill in for the primary class teacher. It was a lot of fun. I'd never taught a class before.

On the 17th Faith had their Mother - Daughter activity. It was fun although I would have rather been home doing other things on a Saturday... :) My mom had a good time though.

:) I absolutely LOVE having brothers!!! They can be most annoying at times though...
Sheppard (with Lance help) piled rocks and cleaned up around my stairs.

I now have a little flower garden. :) I've never had one before and I'm finding it to be as much fun as I thought it might.

Sheppard did most of the planting for me... Didn't he make it look cute!??

On Monday he added a turn in the steps up to my room. It makes them so much easier in the dark!!!

What do you think of them???

Getting the wood to finish the job was quite fun. :) We literally slid through the doors of Home Depot as they were closing Monday night. On the way home we quoted some Scripture and sang a couple songs... :) I love being a part of a larger family!!!

~Tuesday, May 6th~

2008-05-06T14:52:00.000-04:00

:) This morning was fun. Ashley and I had our monthly cup of coffee.
(Have I told you anything about Ashley Tyndall Stafford? She is my best Friend. :o) I'll tell you more about her later.)
About once a month I meet up with Ashley at her parents house to have coffee with her and her dad. Poor guy he has 5 daughters... :) He did gain two son-in-laws last year though!!! :) I really enjoy get togethers.
It all started about two and a half years ago when Ashley and I were both working at GBS Lumber (and she was not married). Instead of us both driving there we would meet at her house and ride together. :) And of course have a cup of coffee with her dad before leaving. Time moved on and we no longer meet at the Tyndall's house in the mornings, thus no talking while dunking ginger snaps in the living room with her father. :) Then Ashley started helping her mom with some of the cleaning once about every other week. (Don't ever have her dust your house unless you are willing to do it again after she leaves. :) She gets in a hurry and misses stuff. :o) love you Ashley!!!) We got to talking one day about missing those morning get togethers with her dad and decided to make a point of getting together there once a month when she was going to be cleaning for coffee.
Here is a picture of Mr. Tyndall when he had stopped by UPS to mail a package to his brother. :) It was nice of him to send his brother a gift but...

he had just gotten out of the hospital and it was a brotherly prank. :)

Doing a post at work is a good bit of fun. I just spent about 25 to 30 min. trying to get this guys picture taken. We had to get him to open his eyes long enough to take a picture. He did not cry once during the three times his mother had to wake him up. He is six week old and ten pounds.

Because this is the first time we have done one for a baby this little and I was the one who did it... I was just dubbed "The Baby Picture Taking Expert" by Sam. :) It's easy to become a expert here all you have to do is something no one else has done and do it well and Viola! you are the expert. :)

The first day of May :)

2008-05-01T11:22:00.000-04:00

:) Today is Thursday May the first... This means our fearless leader Josh (as Sam lovingly calls the store owner) was in to pay bills and print out our house account holders monthly bills.

Here he is hard at work. When he is here doing this my job gets a lot harder. I get to keep the customers as far away as I possibly can.

Normally there is something like this you can see floating around above his head.

Oh but this morning to my delight he was quite pleasant to be around. He even laughed a little and let me take a picture (and he SMILED!!!). He does not like having his picture taken. :)

Recently the store has been rather slow in the mornings. Last week I started been bringing in my cross stitching so I'll have something to do. People see it on my chair and find it hard to believe that a young person knows how to and enjoys doing it. :) Here is what I'm working on.

This is what the pattern looks like.

I love watching it start to take form. Don't know why but it is a quite relaxing past time... even the undoing after miss counting part. Hmmm have I gone crazy???

:) The Kids

2008-04-30T22:37:00.000-04:00

Sleep... need sleep. I've got to bed! But before I go here is a little bit of my day.

Tonight I got the babysit the kids. They can be a hand full. :) Getting them to stay away from the pool and to do their homework were the hardest parts.

After eating supper they had fudge bars on the porch. :)

When I come over I normally spend the night and go to work from here in the morning. The two little girls above go to bed about 4 hours before I get to.... :) and they jump in my bed waking me up about 30 min. before I would like to.

Caroline pretending to be asleep in my bed.

I don't know why but for some reason they love trying to tickle me early in the morning... And I love tickling them back. (Of course it comes with lots of hugs and kisses included.)

:) It's past my bed time. Night :) I'm off the bed!!!

Time at Consies

2008-04-30T19:31:00.000-04:00

Hi. So weekend before last (... I think. It might have been the week before that.) found me at my sister's house looking over the kids while she backed iced and decorated a wedding cake for of Howard's younger brother Sam who was getting married. :) Here are some pictures of how it went.

:) Here is one of the many people (including me) who stood around hoping to try the icing for 2nd, 3rd, or 40th time. It was SOOOO yummy :)

As I'm sure you can see there was a LOT of work involved.

It turned out wonderful... :) and tasted divine!!!

(if you look above you can see Ryan pecking out from behind the cake)

I think Howard felt slightly neglected. What do you think?
(It took her all of three days to make.)

But he did like dipping in the icing to :)

:) A good Week

2008-04-18T10:27:00.000-04:00

Hello :) My week has turned out to be a lot of fun. Sheppard asked Adah and me to help him stain a log cabin. So after work I've been driving to Duncan to work some more. :)

Below are parts of the front and sides.

This is the back of the house that looks out on the lake.

:) The dog you see is Winston. He is just a puppy and is a very happy one at that.
He is Adah's most favourites dog.

To the right of the stairs if you look carefully you can just make out a stump. Yesterday the lady of the house came home with flowers and planted them in the center were it had rotted out. They looked very beautiful in the stump and really helped to dressed up spot.

It was so nice and peaceful here it is quite amazing we got any work done at all. :)

They (Sheppard, Adah, and Lance) are finishing up the first coat today and we are hoping to have the second one done by the end of next week.

:) Another one of Sheppard's happy faces.

Adah and Sheppard putting up the scaffolding so we can stain the porch ceiling.

:) I have not spent much time with them in long time and it has been really nice getting to do this together.

Older brothers! He claimed to have gotten it all out...

Sheppard and Adah on the way home after a good day of work.

My Family... Part 5: Adah

2008-04-18T09:08:00.000-04:00

:) This is Miss Adah Helen Griffith. She is smiling almost 24/7 and really does brighten our lives immensely.

I don't know what we would do with out her to tease... :)

She is the most awesome little sister in the world!!! She has a great big heart and is very caring.

:) You know Anna Tyndall....

Adah is one of her best friends. I have been picking Anna up for church on Sundays. It is a lot of fun riding with the two of them... :)

My Family... Part 2: Sheppard

2008-04-18T07:58:00.000-04:00

:) This is my oldest brother Sheppard. He is 27 and not married. :( I'd like to have another sister... but I would be slightly jealous of her. I really value the friendship we have and when he finds her I know it will change. Shep is the person I go to when I need someone to talk to and get the overhead look at what ever it is I'm thinking about or going through.

:) His happy Face!!! With a very little bit of work He can have me laughing till I can no longer breath and with tears in my eyes begging for him to stop what ever it is he is doing.
He challenges me to be more than what I am and to look a problem with a open mind.

(Not just taking things for face value, but to find the things that are outside the box having an effect on it.)

:) I really have been blessed simply by the family God has put me in. I am continually seeing more of the things going around me and am thankful for the standards my parents have and the example they have set for us.

Making business cards

2008-04-03T09:08:00.000-04:00

Last year as a gift the UPS Stores were given Microsoft Publisher 2007.

:) More toys to play with!!! I love coming up with things to make and rearranging old stuff with it. Anna and I have lots of fun. Sam saw how much we enjoy working with it and thus when business card, fliers, and that sort of thing are needed he passes the jobs on to Anna and me. :)

Last week a woman came in with a CD that had her Business card on it. (It makes it a whole lot easier if they all ready have it and know what they want. Then you are not having to try to read their mind.) But she felt it looked to cluttered and was wondering if we could clean it up some. She did not know what needed to be changed.

(Her card to start with)

(After we played with it.)

It was really easy getting it where she was happy with it. All I had to do was make the paw prints smaller. It made a really big difference. :)

We'll do 500 B/W one sided cards for $25.00. About $17.00 of that is for the paper and printing. The other $8.00 is for the cutting.

:) This is a business card cutter. (It makes the job soooo much easier.)

Here is how it works...

First you cut it long ways.

Then you cut each of those again.

And just like that there is your card.

:) It works best if two people are working on it. One feeds the paper in and the other turns the wheel. If you are doing a good job working together there is always a paper in the tray.

One time about a year ago Anna and I were working on a cutting some for the first time. We had not been working here for very long. We were talking, laughing, and just having a good time. Then the bright idea came up that why don't we cut more then one paper at a time... after all it would make the job go twice as fast. :) It was working wonderfully for little bit. (Remember that if your doing it right you'll always have a paper in the feeder.)

After it was broken and the paper taken out we saw the little sign on the feed tray that reads 'STOP! CUT ONLY ONE SHEET'. Dear Sam took it home and fixed it on his weekend off. :( We were very sorry and have not done it again.

:) Then there is my favorite... The big paper cutter. It is lots of fun to use. (Exept for the little bit of time it was waiting for the part to come in after I had broke it.) I'll have to tell you about it latter.

Hope you are having a great day. I am :)

Christian Frist :)

2008-04-02T21:34:00.000-04:00

:) Hello.

I hope you are having a great day.

(It would be nice if the weather cleared up a little. It's all wet and rainy outside.)

This young man is Christian Frist. (The oldest of Consie's four children.)

His Birthday is April the 26th and he is soon to be nine. He is growing up sooooooo fast.

He is a very big help babysitting. :) Especially when it comes to supper. He will get and fill glasses, help pass out plates of food, :) and ask kindly for seconds.

:) Oh children are such a blessing from God when raised and trained up according to his word.

I absolutely love being an aunt and seeing God's hand at work in there young lives.

It boggles my mind to think that there are people (some even professing to believe in God) who can look around themselves seeing (or at lest claiming to see) this wonderfully complex world God has created and still believe this universe was brought about by random chance...

Oh how utterly blinded we have become!!!

Sam is 62!!!

2008-04-02T09:16:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was April the 1st and Sam's birthday.

Here are some pictures...

Anna's birthday gift to Sam (Tea and a card).

She lovingly refers to Sam as "Crazy Dear Old Sam"

:) He really liked the card she gave him. The front reads 'A long long time ago...'

Then when you open it the theme song from star wars starts playing and 'you were born' is written. He has been showing it to everyone!!!

Bonnie gave him a book and I bought him lunch.

:) He seemed to really have enjoyed his birthday.

(Note for self: When giving Sam a gift make sure to put on lots of ribbon... He does not like cutting it and thus has to untie it all.)

The UPS Store

2008-03-31T10:53:00.000-04:00

:) I am employed at The UPS Store in Simpsonville

and therefore that is where I spend a great deal of my time.

This is Anna Tyndall and my boss Sam.

:) We enjoy teasing him...

and I think he rather enjoys teasing back.

This is Sara Kamp (one of my meny cousins). She works here in the afternoons

The lady above is Bonnie. She has a great sense humor and is a delight to work with. She recently moved to one of the other stores Josh Hermann owns (He owns three altogether). I now work the hours she was working. :) She still comes by to visit and ask about Trevor.

My Family... Part 1: Consie

2008-03-19T15:18:00.000-04:00

This is Consie....

:) She is my most favorite big Sister and is more like a very best friend.

(Is that not what sisters are supposed to be???)
She is the oldest of us seven Kids and the only one that is married.

This is her with her husband. They recently bought a nice cozy house

and she is having a blast turning it into their home.

(I'm loving watching her do it and helping where I can.)

She has four of the best kids in the world...

:) I'm sure before long you'll hear all about them.

Hey peoples :)

2008-03-12T13:22:00.000-04:00

I have finely decided to do a post.

So to start it off I post about my boyfriend...

He has one older sister ( more on her later)

and four younger brothers (all pictured below + his Dad).

:) The hot guy circled in red above is

Trevor Castlebury. He is the most wonderful, uplifting,

encouraging, and in all honesty at times frustrating

(Not because of anything he has done, but because at times I get rather impatient.)

boyfriend.

I am GREATLY blessed to have him as part of my life.