Awesome Blog that I found by chance

This lady is amazing! She has some really cool, fun craft ideas. I am now a follower :)
Check out her blog here: http://www.projectnaptime.blogspot.com/

some summer fun

School is back in session, the days are getting shorter, the weather is getting cooler, the trees are starting to change colors. Deer season opens tomorrow. We are getting to may favorite time of the year. As I look back over the last few months I am reminded just how blessed I really am. I have an amazing family. I was able to take the whole summer off and enjoyed every minute of it. I learned a lot about gardening and canning. I have enough jam, spaghetti sauce, peppers and zucchini to last me until  next gardening season and I am so very proud of that! I am looking forward to adding more variety to my garden next year, and hopefully my blueberries will take off.

Some of the fun things we were able to do included going to the zoo and we got to go in to pet the stingrays. We also had a chance to get away for a weekend at Sam A Baker State Park and spent a day at Elephant Rocks. We were hoping to get more chances to do some camping but maybe we'll have better luck next year.  

I had the opportunity to be a camp advisor for our Young Womens group this year and it was an experience I will never forget. The girls are such an inspiration to me. I also got to coach the girls volleyball team this year and just this past weekend we had our tournament. We had enough girls to make 2 teams so we split up...and took 1st and 2nd place! They were awesome!

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Tomato heaven...

So my tomatoes are growing great this year, though it is kinda hard to tell just how good from this picture. Lemme explain. This is a picture of just 3 of the plants, which were each planted with a minimum of 3 ft between them. They are now chest high on me and full of tomatoes. I only have 8 plants in the garden right now but I have more seeds started to extend my growing season. I am hoping to be able to can a lot of sauce this year. Speaking of canning, I finally learned how to do it...and I have been canning green beans and jams for the last 2 days! I am so glad I know how to do this now. I just have to go buy my own pressure canner now. I am borrowing one from a friend and am VERY grateful for it.  :)  I am also grateful for the girls of the gardening club that helped to make this all possible!

Iron Rod Experience

What a great idea! The Young Women leaders planned a really cool Iron Rod activity for the girls. We camped out Friday night and they had a hike set up for the girls. The ward pitched in and loaned 950 ft of rope to construct the "Iron Rod" It led through a nicely cut trail past the Great and spacious building, then got into some rougher terrain (fallen trees and rocks, sticks etc) The girls were blindfolded through "the mist of darkness" and were being tempted/encouraged by some adult volunteers, to let go of the rod to make the hike easier. I am happy to say all of the girls held tight and made it through to the Tree of Life safely. We had a lot of fun and we are really excited about girl's camp now.

                                     

We didn't go completely without incident though. We found out that Tarzan (or girl's mimicking him) are NOT invincible LOL

ScoutQuest 100

Scoutquest was a BLAST!!! We had so much fun! There were more than 20,000 scout and leaders there, not including the parents that just randomly showed up (like me) There were so many things to see and do. Here are just a few of the pictures I took while we were there.

FCCLA Officer installation

Sierra was elected as an Officer for her FCCLA chapter for the 2010-2011 school year. This is her 2nd year as an officer. I am so proud of her. She has already decided on her first major project for the year.

more reminiscing...

Meremac Caverns...need to go do this one again, it has been a while and now they have an amazing zip-line! It would be so worth the money!

Steve and the kids checking out the targets, we spent the day at the range and I must say my kids can shoot pretty good

Sierra, Tyler and Austin with Mama and Papa Raddatz at the family reunion

Kylie, Rodney and Sierra swimming in the river down at Morse Mills.

short trip down memory lane

Ok, ignore the date on this one, it is wrong. Here the kids were getting ready to go horseback riding.

This was a birthday party at grandpa's for Josh, Ed and Heidi. Of course there was some swimming going on :)

The kids at the transportation museum. I had to work that day so I missed out. We are definitely doing this one this summer :)

With the amazing summer-like weather we had today (92 and humid!) I was reminded of how much fun we have during the summer. I was also reminded that in just a few short days I will be done working until next fall! I can't lie, I am really looking forward to some quality time with the kids, but I really need to find something part time to help out. I am kinda feeling guilty because I haven't found anything yet. Anyhoo, I wanted to share a few fun pictures from summers past

bad blogger, but here ya go

I am a bad blogger...I spend too much time on my Facebook. Anyhoo, I wanted to share a few pictures with y'all.

Steve has started a new chapter in his life. I am very happy with this change. I think he likes it too, but we both wish it would pay better. I am satisfied that the stability here is worth it though (and he looks awesome in uniform too)

Tyler has been taking it easy lately. He has been focusing on his Scouts and just being an all around great kid. He sees the beauty in everything and reminds me every day to just relax and enjoy the little things.

Sierra decided against being IN the play this year (High School Musical Jr) and instead decided to be in crew with her friends. She was chosen as stage manager and really had a great time with it.

Austin had track and field day. He took 5th place in the 400 meter run and 4th in the long jump. I am so proud of him. He had a great time :)

My baby girl is growing up so fast. Here she is with a few of her friends at her 8th grade dance.

This is my first ever attempt at making a quilt. I have so much more to do, these are just the blocks that I have done so far

Well, MY favorite part of the day was...

We have kind of made it a dinnertime tradition to go around the table and each of us tell what our favorite part of the day was. It is always fun to hear about everyone's day and it keeps us at the dinner table longer because no one can leave the table until everyone has had a chance to go. Since Steve and I take our sweet time to tell ours, everyone is finished eating before we finish our stories. It is really nice...no one runs off to play video games or watch tv :) So, yesterday since Steve was out of town we called him on our way home from church so we could all share and so the kids could tell daddy goodnight. It was pretty cool. We look forward to him coming home tomorrow night so we can sit around the table and return to tradition, even if it is just gonna be for the weekend.

So, Austin's favorite part of the day yesterday was guitar class, which kinda surprised me. He has been taking lessons for a few months now and has never once said it was his favorite part of the day. He catches on so quickly that he gets bored with it. Yesterday was a different story though...he learned how to play Iron Man and he was super-excited about it!

What a bummer

My intentions are good, I promise they are! It has been a busy couple of weeks around here. Today I was going to try to post another 2 page Tuesday, but all of my scrapbook stuff is at my friends house because I have been going over there to work on some pages with her, so I have nothing to share. I hope to be able to get something up next week.

Yesterday I was supposed to take a bus-load of cheerleaders to a basketball game and I was really looking forward to it. It would have been my first extra trip and would have paid very well. I was really bummed when I got a phone call to let me know the cheerleaders were not going :( Oh well, we had the missionaries over for dinner so it all worked out :)

resolution...

I know I have been a bad blogger...like really bad and I hope to correct that this year. I can't promise that I will be as consistant as I hope to be, but I will promise to get on as regularly as I can to update my blog. I hope to bring back the 2 page Tuesdays, and maybe throw in a flashback Friday here and there. So I guess while I am at it, I will just post my first Flashback Foto now. Every time I look at this picture it amazes me at how much the kids have grown and how much everyone has changed.

I hate to say it, but I have never been happier for a new year! 2009 was a really rough year. Now don't get me wrong, we did have a lot of good in 2009, but as far as a year goes, it was rough. Quick rundown of 2009...started off with me having surgery, kids running me ragged with baseball/softball, Steve lost his job (pretty rough) Towards the end of the year we were all just kind of running on empty.

It seemed things were starting to turn around when Steve was able to get some part time work with some friends from church (we are so very thankful for that) and I started a new job. It was a really hard decision to leave my last job considering he didn't have steady full time work, but it was passed time for me to move on. I love my new job, and although I make a little bit less now than before my stress levels are so low now, I don't come home crabby anymore (it was every day before) and I don't hurt everyday. I no longer wanna come right home and crawl into bed...ok...except for my occasional 8am nap! I feel like a completely different person now...I actually feel human again and not like some run down robot.

I enjoyed being in the primary presidency for the year and I now look forward to my time in my new calling as RS 1st counselor. I really like it (I'm only 2 weeks in right now)

So far 20-10 seems to be going in the right direction! I have my new calling and I love it, I have my new job and I love it, I have my family and friends and I live them too! Oh, and BTW Steve has a NEW JOB!!! and we are loving it!!! Well, the idea of it at least. He hasn't actually started yet, but he got the call the other day and will be going in Monday morning for the drug test and hopefully will now more of the details then. We do know that he will be starting on Feb 1st. He is going to be a Correctional Officer at the state prison in Bowling Green.