Kids Rooms

This week I am linking up with Kelly's Korner again and it is all about kid's rooms. I am also including pics of our gameroom since that is basically another kids room without the bed.

Up first, Aaron's bedroom. Aaron is 11 and is into hunting, so we decided to go for a cabin feel with his room.

I got some rustic looking, rough cut post oak very cheap from a local lumber company and we covered one wall with it for an accent wall. His bed is made of Aspen wood and we bought it in Canton.

We used parts of Robbie's grandmother's old tin fence to put tin all around the bottom of the other walls in the room. I love how some of it is rusty and since the tin is so old it just has a lot of character.

Austin is 6 years old and his room is completely different. He really wanted bunk beds, so we got some with drawers for a little more storage. His bedding is from Pottery Barn, and wall accents are from Hobby Lobby.

I went with a red color on the bottom part of his wall and a beige on top. The border is a metal diamond plating that is used on cars and trucks. We got it from a hardware store, and I think it's perfect for his car room.

This castle was given to him by some friends a few years ago and he still plays in it.

The next few pictures are of an open area above the pantry in our kitchen. For the time being, it is a place for all of our Geotrax train pieces. We started Austin's Geotrax collection about 4 years ago and it is still played with almost daily. If you are looking for a good train set for your child, this is my recommendation. We've had Thomas, but these tracks are easily assembled and disassembled by little hands and very very durable.

But you may need to build an extra room onto the house at some point...

This is our game room. This is where we have all of the kids gaming systems and a TV that is hooked up to all of them, plus kids books and games. The cabinets are made of maple and we had them painted white to contrast the blue/grey walls in there.

We also have an air hockey table in here, and above it is a framed puzzle that Robbie and I put together our first year of marriage...almost 15 years ago.

This is also the room where we keep our treadmill.

Our game room gets tons of use and I'm really glad that we have it for the kids to play in.

Hope y'all enjoyed the tour of our kids areas in our home! I also did posts on our master bedroom, kitchen, and living room this month, so feel free to look around!

New baby, Group meeting, and Canning

Well. I usually try to do one post a week, but something has been wrong with either our wifi or our computer (or a combination of the two) (or the internet provider, who really even knows?) and it just hasn't been working, but a few mintutes ago I picked it up to try it (fully not expecting it to work), and what do you know? It's having a good moment so I'm going to try to get everything in that I want to say before it dies on me again.

Which is funny because I really am typing faster just in case it is preparing to die on me in exactly 10 minutes or something.

There are several different things I need to get on here and there is no way I can make it all flow into one pretty post, so we're going with numbers on this one.

1. We have a new baby. It's a girl and her name is Bella. She weighs 2 pounds and 3 ounces. I had forgotten what it was like to be awakened with crying in the middle of the night, but now I remember that I don't really care for it.

She is a shih-tzu - yorkie mix. When I went to Canton the first weekend in June, she was begging me to take her home. So I did.

Bea is not thrilled about her at all, and the two couldn't be more different. Bea is very lazy and laid back. Bella wants to be chewing something or playing or peeing or pooping ALL THE TIME.

Well, she does sleep sometimes. And my favorite thing about her is that at night she lays on my shoulder and lets me rock her to sleep.

Yes, I needed a baby fix and this cute little thing was my solution.

And even though Bea doesn't like her, she is getting a little extra attention around here from all of us too.

Yes, it is as it appears. Austin is kissing her hand :)

2. Friday evening Robbie came home from work, Aaron was out riding his 4-wheeler and Austin was on the golf cart. Aaron was begging me to cook so we didn't have to go to town, but, well...it was Friday. And I just didn't feel like cooking. And I needed to go to the bank. And whatever other excuse I could come up with to not have to come with an idea of what to cook.

Anyway, we had gone out to eat and were headed home when our neighbor called Robbie. I could tell from hearing only one side of the conversation that something was not right and it involved possible damage to our house, police, and wondering if Robbie really thought our neighbor was kidding him or he just couldn't think of anything to say other than, "you're kidding me".

So here's what happened. There was a high speed police chase going on in our neighborhood (and I say that loosely because we live in the country, not even close to being a neighborhood) and the driver of the car that was trying to get away decided he would turn down our driveway to get away from the police. What he did not know is that if you turn that fast off of a road onto a gravel driveway you will leave tire marks on the road that are easy to follow. And that you may hit a tree if you try to take that turn going 80 mph. And that we have some neighbors that are very well aware of people coming and going from our house and knew that this was not the type of people we usually entertain.

Anyway, they came down our driveway, parked the car behind our shop, and got out and ran into the woods.

Ok. Here's something you need to understand about our house. You cannot see it from the road. You have to know where you're going to get here. And there has only been one time I can remember in the past 3 years of living out here that someone took a wrong turn and ended up here. People just don't come back here unless we know them. Ever.

So the police came down our driveway and saw the car that they had been chasing and they caught the people as they were running through our woods.

I have to give it to them for running through these woods though. The area they were in is full of thistles, branches sticking out everywhere, and snakes, spiders, and other little creatures that like to bite or attack.

The officer showing us where the weed was found and where we can possibly find more if we choose to roam through our woods. I do not see this happening.

I guess after running from the cops you have enough adrenaline to not care what kind of danger you're putting yourself in in the woods.

Personally, I would rather go to jail.

So the police caught the 2 people, cuffed them, and loaded them up. We got here just in time to see the police car they were in and talk to the cop that arrested them. They had found a bag of weed in the woods and said there was possibly more, and these people had a lot of charges against them by the time they got caught. As we were pulling in, there was a wrecker pulling out of our driveway with the getaway car loaded up in the back.

We were gone from our house maybe an hour and all of this happened during that time. I know that if we had stayed home my boys would've still been outside playing and would've possibly been hurt or even killed just being out there.

The morals of the story are: Eating out can save your life. And God is good.

3. This past week I have been working to get the house fixed up for a group we had coming over last night. I'm not really sure why, but I always seem to want to start projects right before I have people coming over. But my projects all got done (and will get their own post at a later date), and the get-together was a success.

The church we go to has over 400 members, so small groups are the best way to really get to know people. We had our small group over, plus a few others that we had invited last night.

We had sandwiches, hot dogs, and chips and dip.

This was during the devo and the kids were lined up on the stairs.

And it just happened to be Glenda's birthday so I got her a cake from The Bakerman. It had red daisies and a Razorback on it.

After she saw her cake we decided that a Hog Call was in order. So everyone (that was an Arkansas fan) did the hog call. It was so neat and I was wishing that we had an Arkansas football game to sit down and watch after that.

One of the reasons the hog call was cool was because we had Ike Forte at our house and he is a Razorback legend. Even though I've never heard him talk about it. Which makes him even cooler to me. But to do the hog call with him was pretty awesome.

We ended up having about 50 people at our house and I loved every minute of it. Robbie and I have always liked to entertain at our house, and for the past 3 years we really haven't had the space in our house for more than just our family, so we are eating this up. Plus the group we had over here is such a good group of people. Even though it didn't end until 10:30pm, I still wasn't ready for everyone to leave.

4. We now grow and can our own food. That is a sentence I didn't think I would ever say. My mom has always had a garden and canned her own food, but all I can really remember about that is walking through the kitchen as a jar was sealing and being scared to death when it popped, and that I HATE the smell of vinegar. And I still do. Cannot stand it. But since Robbie decided to plant a garden this year and things are actually growing in it, I have to do something with it. He planted lots of banana peppers and I love banana peppers, but not right out of the garden. I like them pickled (which ironically just means soaked in vinegar water) so I was either going to have to learn how to can my own peppers or throw away Robbie's hard-earned creation.

So I learned to can food. My friend Sara helped me and between an internet recipe, her mom, and my mom we got it done. And y'all, they are delicious. Better than any store bought ones I've ever had. And I'm pretty sure I could live the rest of my life only eating ritz, cream cheese, and my peppers.  It's a little taste of heaven on a cracker.

The finished product

I have also shucked and de-silked (is that a word?) corn and put it in the freezer, and I've cut up okra and have it ready to cook also.

It's like I don't even know who I am anymore.


That is all for today. I actually made it through the entire post with my computer still up and running. If it remains in this good mood, I plan on putting up pics of my kids rooms this Friday.

We shall see.

UPDATE: I've had several people asking me what the recipe was for the banana peppers, and since they were delicious, I though I needed to post it. It's super easy and they are so, so good!

2 pounds peppers
6 cloves of garlic (sliced in half lengthwise)
1 1/2 Cups Water
1 1/2 Cups white vinegar
4 teaspoons salt

1. Wash the peppers. Cut the tops off and remove as many of the seeds as you can.

2. Cut the peppers into rings of whatever thickness you prefer (The smaller, the better in my opinion).

3. Put the pepper rings and garlic pieces into a glass jar that has an airtight seal when closed.

4. In a medium size saucepan, add the water, vinegar, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.

5. Place your pepper and garlic filled jars in a large pot and put water in the pot just below the opening of the jars and turn on high heat to boil. If there is room for your jar lids in this pot, you can also put them in there to heat up, or get a small saucepan with water and bring lids to a boil (this helps them to seal).

6. Remove the jars from heat and pour the vinegar water over the top of the peppers to fill the jar.

7. Use a knife to move peppers around to remove air bubbles and get the peppers and garlic submerged in the liquid.

8. Get one lid at a time out of the boiling water (with tongs, because they will burn you otherwise...or so I've heard). Place the lid on the jar and put the jar ring around the top. Leave on counter overnight.

9. The next day the peppers are ready to be put in the fridge.

10. A few days later, buy some ritz and cream cheese. Put the cream cheese on the ritz, a pepper on top of that, and let me know if you can stop after eating only one! ;)

Enjoy!!

Our Master Bedroom

This is my 100th blog entry and I want to take a minute to thank all of you that read my blog regularly and encourage me to keep going with it. I started this a little over a year ago mainly just so I could keep up with things that are happening in my life since I don't scrapbook my pictures the way I used to. I didn't really think I would still be keeping up with this a year later, but I really enjoy writing and sharing a part of my life with y'all, so whatever the reason is you keep coming back to read my updates, thank you.

Ok, now on to today's topic. As you know, I've been participating with Kelly's Korner for her Show Us Your Life home tour, and this weeks topic is Bedrooms. Since she has a different date set aside for kids bedrooms, I am only doing my master bedroom today and will be linking up at a later date for the kids rooms.

I love our bedroom so much. The color on our walls is a blueish gray that goes really well with the silver that is in our comforter. The curtains are silver and are almost the same color as the wall (even though they don't really look like it in this picture). We got our bed from Canton (I know, shocker) and it is made out of old doors.

Even the side tables are made of old doors. I fell in love with this bedroom set the minute I saw it in Canton back in October. It is a purchase I do not regret.

I have always wanted to have a trunk in our room and I found this one in Canton on the same day as I got my bed. It was at the Paul Michael store just across from the trade day pavilions. They had it full of glittery Christmas decorations and they had to take all of them out so I could buy it, but they left all of the glitter in it for me to have to clean up. And that hasn't happened yet, so at the moment there is nothing in this trunk but glitter.

I plan to use it for more than that in the future. I just loathe glitter and the thought of it getting all over the floor, bed, and everywhere else within a 5 mile radius keeps me from opening it up and cleaning it out. If anyone has advice on how to get all of the glitter out of this trunk without getting it all over everything else PLEASE share! Until then, it will stay closed to keep the glitter under control.

If you have spent any amount of time on Pinterest, then you've seen this type of canvas 'art'. I made these 4 wall hangings within just a few minutes. If you've never seen it, here's what I did.

I bought a 4 pack of canvas from Michael's and I randomly put painters tape across them. Then I took them outside and sprayed them with spray paint, let them dry, pulled the tape off, and hung them on my wall. Cheap, fast, and easy.

Beside our bed we have a TV hanging on the wall with a table below. We have had this sofa table for years, and it needed a change. This is how it looked before I painted it.

I painted it a silver/gray color to match our room. 

I may be addicted to painting things now. Which may not be a good thing because I am, by no stretch of the imagination, an artist. It's just a creative outlet for me, and I think it's neat to repurpose a piece of furniture that you've had sitting there looking the same way for years.

It's just another form of recycling, right?

Anyway, on this table, I have a picture of Robbie and I from a few years ago on the beach, and I have a picture of my boys. This space seems to be missing something, but I haven't put my finger on what that is yet. I can't really get around the fact that we have a TV hanging on the wall and that there has to be a receiver sitting on that table.

Decorating around real life can be so hard sometimes.

Another object that is hard to make look any kind of good is this brown recliner in our room. We both use it every once in a while, so I guess it is useful, but not at all pretty. Just another one of those 'real life ain't always pretty' things, I guess...

Hope you enjoyed your peek into our master bedroom. If you're stopping by from Kelly's Korner and haven't seen the kitchen and living room post, I'd love for you to go back and look at those too! Y'all have a great weekend!!

A trip to Branson

Saturday morning we got up, loaded everything we could possibly fit into my car (the boys barely fit, but we got them in), and headed for a few days in Branson Missouri. Once a year we meet my dad's cousins from Florida for a reunion and it was time for it once more. We either meet in Florida or in Branson, and since we met in Destin last year, this was the year for Branson.

I would feel I was doing you a disservice if I didn't tell you that we stopped in Little Rock for lunch and ate a Larry's Pizza. Y'all. I now have a new favorite pizza place. Just try it if you happen to be passing through a city that has one.

You will thank me later.

When we got to Branson we met up with my parents, my nephew Luke, and my niece Kaulyn and went to the Baldknobbers show. This is the kids favorite show in Branson, so it's one that we are sure to not miss. And as always, the kids enjoyed the show and I enjoyed the roasted cinnamon pecans. Because really. How can you smell those and not want purchase as many of those little cone shaped bags as you can fit in your purse?

Austin, Kaulyn, and Aaron at the Baldknobbers

I'm only 3 paragraphs into this trip and I've mentioned food in 2 of those. Maybe I should go get something to eat so that I'm not so hungry and every paragraph isn't about food.

On Sunday we took the kids to see Madagascar 3 at the movies. I really like all of the Madagascar movies, so I was almost as excited about seeing this as Austin was. Almost. Although after 2 movies of these poor zoo animals just trying to get back to the zoo, I'm not sure how I felt about them wanting to join the circus instead of staying in the place they had worked so hard to get back into.

I don't remember the writers asking me how I thought it should end though. So I guess they don't really care about my feelings on what should happen with the animals at the end.

But am I the only one that thinks a circus inside the zoo would be a good idea? I doubt it.

If this happens in Madagascar 4, I'm totally taking credit for the idea.

Aaron and Luke

Aaron and Kaulyn being silly.

Luke and Kaulyn ended up staying in our condo and hanging out with us most of the time we were there. It was good for my boys to have their cousins to play with, and it was good for Robbie and I because they saved us from having to go to the Titanic museum and the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum. Not that we didn't WANT to go into those museum's...well, actually that's exactly what it was. We've been in those and didn't care to go again, so with Luke being almost 16 and Kaulyn being 14, they were old enough to keep up with our boys while they went through these places.

Austin and Kaulyn

Our view of King Kong while playing mini-golf.

Ready for the show to start

A few of the other things we did while we were there was played laser tag (which I LOVE and came in second place only to Robbie because he 'accidentally' plowed over me, making me incoherent for a minute), rode go-carts (4 stories high, how could we not?), rode bumper boats (that excited Austin because he is now tall enough to drive himself), played mini-golf (where we had a great view of King Kong's rear end), ate frozen custard from Andy's (2 days in a row), swam until 11 pm (2 nights in a row), saw the Joseph show (which was AMAZING!), had dinner in a fancy restaurant (which we made it through with nothing broken), sang in the car (you haven't lived until you've been in the car with 4 kids that love to sing. Loudly.), and slept late (which has become the motto of our summer).

In line for go-carts

Time to ride

Aaron on his bumper boat

Really everything that constitutes a successful family trip.

Austin and Luke

Aaron and Kaulyn

We got home yesterday evening so today is full of laundry and unpacking.

Well, that's what I'm doing anyway.

Aaron and Austin rolled out of bed at 11:00 and went straight to the living room to lay down and haven't moved since.

Love this pic of my parents with my kids in their laps

Come to think of it, I think that's what I need to do too.

Happy Thursday everyone!