a very busy morning ...

well I had meant to do this yesterday when I got home from work, but after sitting down for a few minutes to check the answering machine I realized how tired I really was & decided to "take the night off". I guess it was a good thing, turns out that I slept almost 12 HOURS last night!!! I really didn't realize that I was that tired, lol.
This morning after everyone left for work & school I spent the morning up & down on the ladder "sanding" the ceiling in Devan's room. After a couple/three hours I was rewarded with this ...



a nice smooth ceiling just waiting to be primed & painted! I was also left with this ...



yep, just in case you ever wondered what a person looks like after sanding a ceiling! LOL.
Oh well I guess it's time to get moving again ...

and it came tumbeling down ...

the only place that I like popcorn is in my bowl, so last year I tried my hand at taking in off the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom. I Loved the result sooo much that I decided that whenever a room is going to be painted that the first step was going to be to take down the ceiling. Last night we emptied all the furniture out of Devan's room ( I guess we can't let him go off to college with toy story clouds still on his walls)



& bright and early this morning I started the process of taking down the popcorn...



this is what I started with, and after 2 hours & 14 minutes & 8 spray bottles full of hot water ...



this is what I was rewarded with! :o)
Not bad time wise I had even taken a little break to put dinner in the oven. When it's finished drying I'll have to sand, then prime before painting but it's oh sooo worth it!
Now for a little update on our fundraising adventures, lol. Well it wasn't quite what we had hoped for. We worked the talent show on Thursday & the Main Street Fall Festival on Friday night and all day Saturday.



Friday night was real slow (it was also Homecoming) so we got real excited when we finally emptied our 1st 1 liter!



See I told you we were excited! These were my partners in crime Friday night that's Tina on the left & Bridgett on the right. :o)
Saturday was much busier but I guess when you are selling for just 50 cents a piece it's hard to make much.
In the end we were all rewarded with a whopping $35.47 each for our efforts. Well except for one kid. He chose to do it himself instead of getting parental/family to come & help out. (trust me this was his choice he wants for NOTHING) He did show up at the talent show & after 2 minutes went "to take a peek". He didn't return until the entire show was over & we were breaking down. He showed up yesterday at 12:00 & promptly left "to look around" within the first 5 minutes. He stayed till 1:00 & during that time left 3 times. We figure he worked about 45 minutes total so we gave him $5. It's actually pretty generous NO one else made $5 for 45 minutes of participation.
We are not giving up on our fund raising efforts though, we just need to get more creative.

I have NOT forgotten about you :o) ...

you just would not understand how incredibly busy this week has been!
First of all I have worked EVERY day!
Every day there has been a ton of things to do after school & we have THREE, count them 3 days of fundraising in a row for the London trip! (I'm sooo looking foward to Sunday & finally sleeping in).
As far as the fundraising goes I just don't know how much more we can stand! We worked the talent show last night (would have liked to have seen the show but we sold refreshments) & this evening we worked the "Main Street Fall Festival" selling drinks. You know I was a little worried about how we would be able to handle the cost of things, well after the last couple of days I'm not even worried anymore. So far each family has a profit of .... are you ready ... $11.89!!! WAHOO!!! I just can't stand anymore, lol. Oh well, you don't know unless you try. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, tonight was homecoming so it was an awuful night to try to do something like this.
Other than the fact that I'm sooo tired I don't know what I've been doing this week (lol, & I do this with your kids) I don't really have much to share other than my SIL (Sherry) sent me a video and I laughed my butt off! I hope you enjoy it half as much as I did :o) ...

first ever "Jacobi Fright Night"

yesterday Meleah & I spent the day together, we went to Jackson to get supplies for a fund raiser (for the London trip) I have coming up next week. While together she started talking about getting together to watch scary movies (she doesn't really like watching them by herself) so we started making plans. As it evolved it turned out to be more of a small family gathering so it was dubbed the first ever "Jacobi Fright Night".
We got together at Meleah's after Devan sang at the football game (he came with me it wasn't a good night for him to be out driving on his own it was kind of rainy & foggy besides he was my dd, lol, that means mom had 2 wine coolers instead of 1).
Anyway we had Meleah & Jenna (her itty bitty, playing in her room), Becky (Meleah's SIL) & Spence & Alissa (her two itty bittys to help keep Jenna happy & play in her room too), Mark (Meleah's big bro), me & Devan (my not so itty bitty-except in my heart).
Meleah provided the place, movies, sodas, & popcorn. I brought the peanut M&Ms, Doritos, & Mike's Hard Lemonade-Pomegrante -Yumm !!
It was a bit of a trick keeping the itty bittys from seeing & hearing things (thank God for pause buttons) but we managed with a little patience & some extra time. Most of us finished the movie.
It took long enough (waiting for Dev to get home & hitting the pause a few times) that we only watched one but it was still a lot of fun & I hope we do it more often! :o) (who knew you could laugh so much during a horror movie !?!)
The movie we chose was Rob Zombie's Halloween Unrated, it was pretty cool. If you like the Halloween movies it goes back & explains why Michael Myers is sooo "messed up". Although they did kind of change some of the background from the first movie it was still pretty good.



this is Chewy (short for Chewbaca) he's Meleah's & he is the sweetest thing ever! Every time I go over there I am rewarded with more Love than I deserve. I would definately bring him home with me if they would let me :o) ...



Becky & Alissa (the movie was paused) notice the mask ? How appropriate since we were watching Halloween, LOL ...



Devan & his cousin Mark enjoying the movie & maybe doing a little male bonding.
We had a Great time! (thanks Meleah) And hope to do it agian sometime soon :o) , hope you find a little fun family time this weekend too ...

the end is coming ...

well for all pratical purposes we have attended our LAST parent/teacher conference & while they aren't something that I jump up & down about it, it is a signal of things to come.
We did leave with a very Happy-Warm feeling, apparently ALL his teachers this year really like him! :o)
When they would ask who's parents we were & we would say "Devan", they would say "Oh, I LOVE Devan" & smile!
It was really nice, much better than "oh, yeah Devan" not that-that has happened , lol, but there hasn't been this amount of smiles in the past.
He must really be charming them this year ??? Does he know how to charm ??? Hmmm, I don't really think he does- but... oh well at least I think we're in for a good year.
Even the class he's doing horrible in seems to really like him (good thing since it's their second year together, LOL). And he actually had a pretty decent grade in math (well for him at least).
I hope that ALL the changes yet to come this year can end on a positive-happy note like they have this week: no more driving to & from school or to activities- etc., no more parent/teacher conferences, whew ...

omg! my baby is ... DRIVING !!!

so I need someone to tell me how in the hell you all seem to stay so calm ALL the time!
I got sooo nervous this afternoon around 2:30 that I couldn't take it anymore & headed to town.
To do what I'm not really sure, I went to the high school and sat in the parking lot & waited for school to get out, lol. How pathetic is that! His appointment wasn't until 3:30 but my stomach was in knots & I swear I could have thrown up.



filling out the paperwork ...



waiting for Miss Powers ...



she was sooo cute, when they got back & she got out of the van she said "well your insurance just went up" lol (I'm sure it has but we haven't asked how much yet-we chose to just be happy and enjoy today)



after the pressure of taking the test was over Devan wanted to take a minute with the ducks that live outside the testing center



his first time driving by himself, he drove to church tonight (he text that they let church out early so he was going to Hastings until 8, then at 3 till 8 he text he was coming home, lol, he couldn't have done anything other than get there & come back)



if you look real close you will see a woman (a politician that stopped by wanting to talk) walking up the drive - she had NO idea that she was taking her life in her hand walking in the drive while he was heading out, lol!
Well he's home now safe & sound :o) with a big smile on his face!
I think a whole new world has just opened up for him ...

a little helping hand...

small moments like this are what life is made of ...



yesterday while we were outside trying to clean up the mess from the storm & trying to cover the roof of the garage before any rain hit Ryan (our cable guy-remember I mentioned him yesterday) came by to see if our phone was working yet. When he drove up he took one look at Jim up on that roof & he didn't say a word. He just climbed up that ladder & started helping :o) , he stayed up there till Jim got things the way he wanted it then he came down & started in on the cable.
This is what I LOVE about small town life! If you're in need you don't have to say a word- people just roll up their sleeves and start helping when given the chance. :o) It really makes me all warm & fuzzy inside. :o)
Did you get a good look at that sky in the pic, it really was that ugly. We were sure it was going to rain & it's looked like that all day today too, but we still haven't gotten the first drop.

a teeny tiny visit from Ike last night ...

in the wee hours the tail of Ike blew through our area. A little rain would have been appreciated here but we seemed to have gotten just the winds. Once again we are Lucky, we did recieve damage (like when don't we) but what hit us is minor compared to what others have gotten. I haven't heard of any serious damage in the d'burg area.



the garage seems to be what was hit the hardest for us



shingles & siding



a little siding on the south end of the house



and we lost a total of 3 trees, this was one of our biggest pine trees on the back of the property behind the garage (you can't really tell by the pic but it was quite big)



one of our bradford pears on the front of the property, it was split into THREE pieces!



this is the trunk of the bradford pear, it's amazing to think that was done with wind

this is the third tree, down at the pond. It took out several limbs in the surrounding trees with it.

So everyone here is good, nothing major just some clean up & going to have to deal with repairs, maybe insurance (ugggh, dread that).

The cable did go out, oh yeah remember we just upgraded so that meant NO tv, NO phone, & NO internet!!! Oh joy, but it's ok Ryan came out (my fave cable guy) and everthing is almost back to perfect now. Seems they may have to run a new phone line tomorrow.

So how are things your way? Have you seen Ike? I hope not, I hope you all have had a wonderful & safe weekend.

yummy, yummy, yummy i've got pie in my tummy :o)

yep, I couldn't stand it anymore. I busted out a jar of pie filling last night & had Jim pick up some vanilla ice cream on the way home-yum! :o)



It came out a little browner than I like but it was still very good.



and here's a pic of my favorite finds from this past weekend.
HL has Prima's "Say it with Crystals", when I saw these I knew I had to have them! Even went back on Saturday to get the second one with my 40% off coupon. :o)
Aren't they gorgeous! I'm all about a little bling on my pages. :o) I also picked up the new K&Company easter chipboard set (too cute) & some Jolee's, not too much-I was a good girl. :o)
This has been one busy week since I got home from Tammy's, Ive worked EVERY day till today ...
Yep I slept in today!
Well till 6 anyway, Devan needed some help "cooking lunch" this am. The "kids" have decided to have "pot lucks" every now & then. (they really enjoyed it when they did it last month) They decided that today was "pot luck" lunch day & the "theme" was mexican. (can you believe this, hehe) Devan was in charge of making "taco ring" & bringing it. You don't think he actually had a clue about how to do this do you ??? He did do it, but you have to be there to show & walk him through it. They had a blast last month. They had venison burgers (Dev's contribution), rotel, chips, pb&j sandwiches, cheesecake, & cookies. I think some of them are in charge of plates & such. (they have made the rule you have to contribute or you don't share, lol)
I'm scheduled to work again tomorrow, whew busy week. Truth is I haven't even unpacked my stuff from this past weekend, I've been so tired that I haven't cared. Fell asleep last night trying to catch up on my "blog reads", lol.
I guess I'll be going to the game tomorrow (for a little while anyway), the choir is singing again.
Well I guess I'm off to try to catch up on some things (I'm sooo far behind), oh yeah today is a pj day! ;o)

... a few pics from this past weekend :o)

I thought I would share a few pics from this past weekend with you before I head to bed, it's been quite a day & I'm bushed. I've been working PE for the past 2 days, we have a new coach & I've really enjoyed working with him. He's great with the kids. Let's just say PE rocks, lol, but after 10 or so classes rotating through there each day I'm wiped out. Good news is I don't go in till 11:30 tomorrow (PE again) so I do get to sleep in tomorrow. :o)
Well that's if my darn cat alarm clock doesn't decide to go off at 5:14 am again!
You know Stephanie has always been able to tell when it's 10 pm and she starts yelling for me to come to bed, well this school year she has decided to be my 5:30 am wake up call only she tends to be a bit early (you know those lovely last 15 minutes that you enjoy sooo much).
Anyway back to the pics...



this is Tammy's husband Kenny. (I don't remember what I had been taking pictures of just before this shot) All of a sudden Kenny had both boys in his lap and he said "well this is a picture that needs to be taken, I have both boys up here". Now that's one PROUD Grandpaw :o) Aren't they cute...



this itty bitty is Gillen, isn't he a doll!



and this is a pic of Tammy with her b'day present I took her. Today is actually her birthday but I knew I wouldn't get to be there. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMMY, I LOVE YA!
Well folks I guess that's about all for today, too tired to remember if I had anything else, lol.
... later :o)

this past weekend was my turn to go play with my "bff" Tammy :o) ...

Friday was fair day here which means No school-so no work to miss out on.
We don't actually go to the fair on fair day cause ... there's no school and you can stay up late the night before so we go to the fair on Thursday night, it's much cooler at night anyway.
I was hoping to leave early Friday since there was no school but I was delayed by the lovely cable company. They came out Thursday to upgrade us to cable internet & phone (yeah I've been on dial up ALL this time, aren't you impressed? do you know HOW long it takes to upload pics to this blog on dial up) & Friday morning we got up & the phone wasn't working.
They did get it fixed before lunch but then I was waiting on the mail (hoping Tammy's b'day present would get here in time to take it with me & it did! :o) ) .
I was sooo busy Thursday with grocery shopping, fair, & working the photo club booth at the fair that I hadn't been able to gather & pack all my "stuff" for the weekend.
I finally got to Jonesboro around 4:30 Friday afternoon and of course my first stop was HL, it was 40% off coupon week so you know I had to go. :o) Wow! They had lots of new stuff, I'll have to post some pics later of my new treasures.
It was sooo nice to get away for a while even if it was just a short trip ( I usually leave here on Friday & come back the following Tuesday) but I had to work today so that means I had to come back yesterday. I've never gone for such a short period of time but it was still a good time AND I was actually very productive ... well for me anyway, lol.
I finished a LO & 1 page of another LO. I don't usually do one page & then add the other page but the second page wasn't coming to me. I have put this LO off for a long time, I tend to do that when the subject is something that I really want to be special or the product is something that I dearly love. It was both for this particual LO, but it was worth the wait I really LOVE the way the first page turned out. Now I need to come up with it's companion.



the first LO I did was a lift of this LO posted in the Aug. 2007 Ck by Audrey Lewis.
For some reason when I was going through the CK I saw this LO & I thought of the pics I shot of Sierra for her "Senior" pics.
She was my little guinea pig. :o)
We spent 3-4 hours shooting that day. Different locations, different outfits, she's sooo easy to work with-absolutely one of my FAVORITE subjects to work with ( she can really flirt with the camera sometimes).
I decided to print some of my faves from that day & do a LO.



all the papers & the flowers came from HL,
Tammy helped me pick the papers (thanks Tammy!)



strangly enough the photo of her walking away is one of my faves :o)
IF I enter the "shoot Dyer county" contest I think this will be my entry (think I'll have it printed on metallic paper) .
Kind of represents her going out into the big ol world, striking out on her own adventures...



here are both pages together, aren't her eyes BEAUTIFUL???
The next LO is of Devan, the pics are from Oct. 2006 ( I told you they were old) .
For spirit day he wanted to be Davey Havok (his idol) the lead singer of his favorite group AFI. I can't begin to tell you all the planning and money he put into this thing. :o)
This was the first time he wore make-up & fingernail polish to school . ( when he was born & they said it's a boy I never thought I would get to shop for these items with my child but it's oh sooo different in today's world) When we finally got everything just right I had to grab the camera and snap - well almost a roll of film, lol.
And when Marah Johnson came out with the Love Struck line I knew I had to have it & have it ALL. :o) The papers are all sooo cool, especially if you have someone who is more abstract and doesn't follow the expected path in life. This would be my child. :o)



this is what I came up with! :o)
I scanned the pic in, made a duplicate layer,converted it to black & white, and erased his arms to let his "tatoo sleeves" show, then I printed it on a transparency. (this is something that I saw in someone's gallery on 2peas, sorry I can't remember who) I then cut "him" out & layered him on a sheet of "reflection" paper. Under the transparency I applied a bleeding heart rub-on under his hand (where his heart would be).
His wings are Tim Holtz grunge board (I recently saw this set at HL). I painted them with a silver paint with a little purple glitter paint dry brushed on. I then stamped them with Heidi Swapp's clear wing stamps. I used embossing ink and black embossing powder. I LOVE how these turned out! I placed them under the tranparency and then took an craft knife and trimmed around his sholders and removed the excess so the transpancy would lay flat.
On top of this is the "Follow Your Muse" transparency, I really love the way the transparency looks layered over a pic that is printed on a transparency, over a graffic background.
The hinges are also Tim Holtz grunge board (from the same package) and they are also heat embossed black. They are held in place by Marah Johnson's skull brads & I don't remember where I got the little heart brads but I sure do love them & I'll be sorry when they are all gone.
There's a couple more rub-ons (dare 2 dream & hard core) & then a couple of the cardstock stickers.
So this LO has been all about layers, I think I've counted 6!
It's one of my favorites that I've done in a while, now I just need to come up with it's companion ...

as promised ...

I know you have been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for the rest of my apple pics that I promised. I'm sorry they weren't here yesterday ( it was one busy day) , but here they are now...



66 lbs. of apples will get you 20 quarts of apple pie filling, 6 pints & 10 quarts spiced applesauce :o) ...



the laundry room has a set of shelves over the washer & dryer that are just perfect for storing your canning. Look how they fill the shelf, isn't it pretty!
You know I haven't canned a lot after moving out here. You would think that moving to the county I would have done it more but it turned out to be the opposite.
I'm so glad we were blessed with this little "harvest", there really is something very comforting about canning your own food.
Yes it's a long process but there is something that makes my heart happy when I hear that "pop" that each jar does when you take them out of their "bath" that lets you know they have sealed.
I just have to smile at all our jars lined up waiting to be used, just think about it -I have 20 apple pies just waiting to be made at a moments notice :o) , all you need is a pie crust & a little spice and you are in business!
One of the many things on my list yesterday was to attend our first project graduation meeting (we missed last month because I was out of town) . Project Graduation is a big "lock in" party the night of graduation for the kids, it keeps them from driving around drinking (all the things we were doing at that age). I was a very smart girl & drug Jim along for the pleasure, hehe.
Let me just say " OMG!!!" , I now remember ALL too well why I quit going to this cra... umm stuff when Devan got to high school.
They have an "excutive committee" with 15 people on it! Are you kidding me, can you say over-kill ??? I took one look at that table & wanted to bolt! Half of the people at that table are sooo power hungry that I'm surprised they are able to get anything done. There was a lot of eye rolling & groaning going on at our table ( & not just from me - everyone at the table participated in this). We couldn't wait for this meeting to be over. After the meeting we talked to some of the parents who have had seniors before & they said this is all a big joke, yeah! Thanks so much self appointed power hungry people!
I don't know why they even bother with a "public" meeting, they made it very clear that they hold a "private" little meeting each month before the "public" meeting & that THEY vote on everything, then they are NICE enough to tell us at the "public" meeting what THEY have decided to do! In other words we have NO say what-so-ever.
I hope they don't turn what has been a fabulous last night together with friends into a joke because of their issues & make it more about what they want instead of what the kids want.
The "chairman" spent 5 minutes about the beginning of the meeting telling the seniors who were there "there are only 9 months of your sr. year & one month is officially gone, gone. You can't go back & get it back..." she went on and on. Maybe she meant well but it doesn't matter how much you say this you are NOT going to pound this into their heads, geesh. ( I personally think she is inserting a lot of her own feelings here, I worked with her when I first moved here & let me tell you she was a piece of work then. Apparently things haven't changed much for her, she has always wanted to be "someone" in this little town. I guess after not being accepted in the "Big" social clubs here she finally found a way to "be someone", Lord help us all! )
...enough ranting for today, have a good one :o)

it's apple pickin' time in Tennessee ...

well I never would have guess how I would spend this long "holiday" weekend.
I thought I was going to play around & be productive with some "scrappy" goodness, but when Jim came into the house after mowing all that changed.
We bought this house in May 1997. The people we bought the house from had over planted everything (we've spent years moving & eliminating plants) & all trees were planted very close to the house instead of spreading them out over the property (there's 6 acreas, there's no reason to crowd the house).
After we took possesion we did move a couple of the trees ( 2 apple ) to the back of the property. One died and one survied, it has never done much of anything as far as producing ( & we never really thought that it would without it's mate) .
Three years ago when our sweet Lula died we burried her under that tree (we thought she would like it there) .
About a year ago my SIL Tonya was here visiting and went walking on the back of the property. When she returned you would have thought she had won a great prize! In her hot little hand she was holding an apple. :o)
Apparently the tree had produced 1 apple that year & it wasn't very big but Tonya was happy as a clam she sat down with a knife & had a ball with her "find" for the day.
Yesterday Jim went out to mow & shortly he returned holding an apple, he said that our tree had apples & that it was time to pick them ( he was so proud) . He offered me the one he had & said "they're good & sweet". I grabbed a laundry basket & gave it to him & told him I would come help.
On my way out the door I grabbed my camera of course (we've never had apples before this needed to be documented! :o) )
I was completely surprised at what I found when I got out there ...



here's a little pic of Jim picking the apples :o) ...



would you LOOK how FULL the tree was! It was about to break the branches they were sooo loaded!



I never guessed when I handed him a laundry basket that it would FILL the basket, Jim was just as surprised as I was ...



aren't they pretty! :o) You are looking at 66 lbs of goodness from our back yard (yep that's right 66 lbs!) . Since it was in our back yard & we didn't really expect anything from the tree they are all organic too! hehe



Once I got everything gathered I couldn't resist snapping this pic, there's something very comforting & homey :o)



So since yesterday afternoon I have been doing something that I haven't done since we moved out here, we have been making apple pie filling & spiced applesauce! Yum :o)
The last jar has just come out & now I have to go get ready, I have to work the photo club booth at the fair this evening with Alex.
Tomorrow I'll share a pic of our finished products ( I know you are dyeing to see that, lol) .