I Prefer That You Call Me Bahama Mama!

Um yes that is what I said. I will be a Bahama Mama as of next Thursday at 4:00 p.m.! Cas's 30TH!!!!!! birthday is on the 10th of May and we have been trying to come up with something to do. We discussed a few ideas and just this past weekend we decided on a cruise! A little bit of a short notice! I have never been on a cruise. I have traveled a lot and been to a lot of great places I just have not left the contiguous United States! Our 1st plan was to go to Mexico out of Mobile. We were planning on booking Monday night and we woke up Monday morning to the news about the Swine Flu! Yeah we will pass. See procrastination does pay off sometimes. Had we not waited a day to book we would be cruising the sea on our way to Mexico and they are not canceling any of their cruises! It actually turns out this is a better deal anyways. I would rather go to the Bahamas and this boat is much nicer than the one out of Mobile. I told Cas if I got sick for his 30th birthday, he would hear about it at least until his 40 (really 60th) birthday! We really wanted to go on one that was a day longer but we could not work it out on such short notice. So this caravan will leave on Wednesday to Jacksonville! We don't get on the boat until Thursday afternoon but we are going to get as much out of this trip as possible! We hope to get to Jacksonville in time to eat dinner and do something Thursday morning! We are really excited. We have already purchased some necessary items! Yes I have purchased the cutest little straw beach hat for only $6.00 at Ross! I was up early this morning already packing my shoe bag while wearing my new hat! Bon Voyage!

Sincerely Bahama Mama and Bahama Daddy (doesn't have as cute of a ring to it!)

Oh How I Love Ann

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Catch Up

Quick catch up of our weekend:

Saturday:

City Fest......Hot
Home Depot and Lowes......bought even more plants and vegetables! (Melissa has never worked the crops before other than have a tomato plant as a child...stay tuned!)
Worked in the yard planting!

Sunday:
Back in the yard
Wedding Shower or Brandy
Shopping in town for some items!

I need sleep!

Our Baby

Our baby Maggie is having surgery today. She is just like a child. She sleeps in the bed with us and you have to pack a bag before you can take her anywhere! Anyways she has had a place on the lower part of her belly that was bulging. Her Dr. had told us a while back that he thought it was a hernia and then she stayed at the vet while we were in Birmingham and the Dr. looked at her again and he said that he thought it might be a "mass." That is not what we wanted to hear! We postponed her surgery a week so that she could go to City Fest with us! I am waiting to get a call from them to hear what they found.


Update:!!!!
I spoke with the Dr. and all it really was was that her uterus was "caught up" whatever that means. He removed all of that and so it was not a hernia and she does not have anything seriously wrong!!!! Her blood tests came back and they were great! We are not ready to give her up for at least another 10 years!!!!!! Can't wait to have her home Wednesday afternoon!

Going Green

Happy Earth Day!

We are definitely going GREEN around here. Green with plants that is! Here is all of our plants, herbs and even vegetables we have to plant. My Dad and Mary sent us some and we bought some in Birmingham and went tonight to Home Depot to pick up a few more! I did forget to mention there are Zinnias, a Quince, and a Lady Banks Rose outside to be planted. On top of that we have iris bulbs, 4 Canna Lillies, Rinaculous bulbs and a TON of Day Lillies to transplant! I am taking volunteers!

Game On

So after reading blogs and even mentioning "The Grocery Game" in one of my posts. I decided to join. You can join for 8 weeks for $1. It will tell you what is a great/good deal or if is super cheap she will suggest that you may want to stockpile. It also points out the sales that are not really a sale. She will even point out the coupon and what the total price will be. I am able to get the print outs for Kroger, Winn-Dixie, Walgreen's, and CVS. We used the print out at Winn-Dixie last night. The problem was I had a buggy to push, a sales paper to look at, a Grocery Game print out to look at and my coupons to try to pull out! I am getting a better system together don't worry! We were in the store for a loooooong time. We needed mostly everything. I did manage to save $100. But my goal is to be one of these women that I read about that saves more than she spends. Yes I do need have a need to fill our pantry and fridge for cheap but I am also obsessed with this game of coming home with all of these free and cheap things and saving more than I spent!
"Put me in coach......I am ready to play!"

There is Such Thing As TOO Far!

Just a couple of tidbits that I want to share with you ALL!

The first being that the BF and I were watching t.v. before going to bed and the show we were watching (some news show) stated that everyone should be conscious of what they ate and do their part to stay slim so that they can help GLOBAL WARMING! Hmmmm so to sum that up for ya that means FAT people have also contributed to stupid case of GLOBAL WARMING! The really said that. Yeah sleep on that one or just go eat a candy bar!

The second thing is the PETA fruit cakes! They (Talladega race fans) are trying to break the Guinness Book of Records record for the number of people doing the Chicken Dance at one time. The Talladega Race is this weekend and so they are going to try to break the record there. Seems harmless. Who cares about a million drunk (scary) race fans all dancing like a chicken. It is their pride (or lack there of) so if they want to let them! Uh huh and here is where the PITA Peeps step in! They say this is OFFENSIVE to the chickens and the are protesting! Yes that it what I said. The drunk race fans are going to OFFEND the Chickens! Do they have t.v.'s in Chicken Coops? That is fancy if so. That is fine to stand up for harming animals but there is no just cause behind this one my friends. My favorite morning show Rick and Bubba were extremely fired up about this! As well as they should be. Rick stated that Chickens are just vegetables with a chance! These people should get hobbies!

A Few Things to Do and Then On Our Way for an Overnight Stay

We didn't go to Birmingham for Easter since my Dad and Mary had prior plans. They were going to have dinner this Saturday so we planned on going up Saturday and spending the night and coming back on Sunday. I had already heard that the Opelika News Paper was having a big indoor yard sale so I told Cas that we were making a stop there. I did find a few goodies. A cute rabbit frame for .50 and cute little rabbit flower vase. Cas has been hunting for a decanter for no other reason than he feels we need one for decorative purposes! We have looked at some at our local Antique Super Store....Angels, but they have been pretty pricey. We saw one sitting at a booth and Cas looked at it and it was ONE whole dollar! I told him "For the love of God buy the thing"! Now I have to hunt down some glasses to go with it! I also found a cute little silver plate that has Fleur De Lies on it! It was only .25. I think I know what I am going to do with it. I will post picture when I re-vamp it! I also bought a set of Old World Santas that have the date on them of what Santa would have looked like in that year. I started that collection last year and found a bunch of them. It was $4 and I asked the lady if she would take $2. Isn't that what you are supposed to do.....talk them down! Afterwards she said they were raising money for one of their church members that has Cancer......talk about making me feel bad! After our yard sale excursion we headed to Montgomery to Southern Homes and Gardens.....as noted in previous posts as being one of my favorite places. It is heaven filled with plants! We had to pick up a some pavers for the walkway. We were hungry and pulled of an exit to find the mystery Chic-Fil-A.....one that we have looked for at that exit in the past and still didn't find this time. Cas spotted the Mac-N-More store that yet again we had looked for before.....so we stopped in. I am looking for some creative programs for our computer that I can use for blogging. We looked at some great stuff and left a mere HOUR later! My original plan was to get to my Dad's fairly early so I could lay out by the pool and get a free tan!We had a lovely dinner. The next morning we wanted to go to Costco to check it out since we just have a Sam's. I love their brand of dryer sheets! Another thing on our agenda was to hit Old Time Pottery. It is probably a good thing that we don't have one near us....but yet I can still get to it in Atlanta or Birmingham! I love that place. I am soo tired of looking at our bare floors. We have wanted a rug for some time.....we did have one but had gotten rid of it. They were on sale and we picked out one that went with our lamps! It doesn't look great with our curtains but I already have some new ones picked out. We bought some new glasses as they had them on sale for dirt cheap! We picked up some flower pots to finish up a project. I bought Cas a flower pot stand for Christmas that makes the pots into sort of a tower. We had waited to buy the flower pots because they are soooo much cheaper at OTP......please make note of this if you have one in your area. Side note.....we have bought most of the plants for this and I will post the pictures when we get done. We bought a few more things for the yard and a hummingbird feeder. We even bought something for a Christmas present! Hallelujah......I have been saying that we ARE NOT going to wait until December to start on this. One down, a lot more to buy. I also bought a new quilt for our bed as I am having to re-do our bed. I made the mistake of buying bedding that had some silky material on it and now it looks so not pretty thanks to the kitties! I do not like the quilt after getting home so it's going back. The next stop was a great plant nursery that my Dad and Mary suggest we check On our way back home we stopped by to see my friend Leslie and her husband Scott who had a baby a few weeks ago! I have been dying to see Les and Adley.

Leslie's parents were there as well. I just love them. I have known them a LONG time since Les and I have been friends since Kindergarten!!!! There was a chance of bad weather Sunday night and while we were there the tornado sirens were going off and the weather man was pointing out that there was signs of tornadoes literally withing mere miles of us. We moved our visitation down to the basement of their house!!!!! We stayed a lot longer than intended but I didn't care to drive in a TORNADO and I got to spend some extra time with everyone. Adley is such a sweet baby. She just laid in my arms and looked at me. Then I got to feed her in between her cat naps. She is pretty quiet and calm. Her mom says that she is not always like that. Adley I don't believe her! We finally made it home late but it was worth it to see family and one of best friends ever!

I Picniked Last Night

I will tell you all that I felt so horrible yesterday that I went home threw myself on the couch with a box of kleenex and watched (slept) through my recorded soap-opera from the week. Cas did call to check to see if I felt o.k. to go shopping for some things. I said "NO"......I know shocking right I might could have come home with something good, but that is how bad I felt. I did put the disclaimer out there that if he wanted to eat dinner that he might should swing through an eating establishment 0ther than our kitchen (because it was closed) and pick up something. He did come home with a wireless router for his work laptop so that he could work wirelessly when he is on-call for work. When he has to hook up the laptop in the office then I can't access anything I need to on the main computer and he never hooks it back up.......hiss........ He did mention that they had rather cheap laptops at Best Buy. Him knowing that I want one so I can blog from somewhere else other than our office. I perked up a little of of my perch (the couch) thinking he brought me a surprise!!!!!! He did surprise me the other day with a few bags of my favorite candy in the world as they were part of the mark downs from Easter. Nope......he just brought me some DayQuil. I guess he was tired of the "sniffing and snarling." He did try to keep the animals away from me as he afraid for their furry lives! I have shared with ya'll that I was having trouble getting some things to work as I wanted them to on my blog. I found a really cute site Shabby Blogs and I found some cute things on there that I wanted to use. I don't have a problem with the backgrounds at all and usually not the headers. I did find a cute header that I wanted to use because I could personalize it like I wanted to (for FREE). We have a Mac at home and Cas loves it.....I do for the most part except when it comes to doing design things. The header (as seen above) has a cute little frame on it. I wanted our picture in it. I tried everything and it sounds like a simple task. Huh? Well not for me and my sickly self this week. I emailed Megan of Shabby Blogs earlier in the day to ask her what I needed to do and she emailed me back and said she would love to help me if I would just send her my picture! Wow that was super sweet! Once I crept off the couch and ate the dinner that Cas was nice enough "to scare up" as he would say.....I shuffled around and stated that I was going to check a few things online and then I was off to bed. Well I checked my email and Megan had sent the header back with the picture in it and said I should try Picnik that it was easy and had some extras I could use also! So instead of checking my email and going to bed.......I stayed up and played on Picnik. I added a lot to my header and customized it! Yeah me!

Thank You Again to Megan of Shabby Blogs!
These flowers are for you!

Tax Day Freebies

Good Morning to all of you! Hope you have been able to get your taxes done. I got mine to the accountant yesterday just in time for him to file my extension.....unless he was going to be able to do them last night. Here are some free things to make your day better in case you are having to send the government money. I have some nasty cold with a fever and just want to curl up in the bed. There are quite a few posts that I have to finish and post but just haven't been feeling up to in the past few days.

Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Caddy

Dog Treat from Wal-Mart

A Sample of Rachel Ray Dog Food

Free Wings at Buffalo Wild Wings

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

Dinner Date and Disastorous Dessert

We ate dinner with our friends Jason and Renea last night. Renea cooked some yummy pork, potatoes and cole slaw. I was in charge of bringing dessert. Sounds simple....huh? Cas's cousin had made a yummy strawberry Paula Deen cake a few weeks ago so I thought I would make it. Well I came to realize I don't have just a plain cake pan......just bunt cake and square cake pans and an assortment of holiday cake pans. I know I had some in the past as I have taken a cake decorating class before...guess they just didn't make it to our house. So I chose one a pan that is really I guess for a pound cake. That was the first of it not looking "pretty". Then I moved onto the icing. Simple recipe. I added all the ingredients it said to but it was more like syrup and not icing. I even added more confectioners sugar to thicken it....didn't work. I stuck it in the refrigerator hoping it would thicken. Wrong again. At that point there was no hope. I taste tested to make sure it didn't taste as bad as it looked. It tasted good just looked bad! Then the next problem. Last time I took a dessert over there I realized that I did not have a plastic cake pan and dome for traveling. When I ran into this last time I had to take the nice glass one and hope I didn't break it. Which with me is very likely. We have had a few household objects fall victim to this lately. So I put it on a tray that was cracked (knowing after the cake was done it would make it to the trash) and then sat it on another cookie sheet. We had to cover it with tin foil. Since my icing was just sliding off into puddles I took the bowl of icing so that everyone could just drizzle their own over their piece of cake. I told Cas we had to make some Brownies to take too since the cake looked so bad. We are going to Old Time Pottery this weekend for a few things so I am going to make sure to come home with a "plain" cake pan and a travel carrier for my next cake to ride in! Hopefully the next cake will be worthy! We were excited to get to spend some time with them since we have had conflicting schedules. They are expcting a baby boy in July!

Moving Forward

I think I have found someone to help with my blog. She is very reasonable. Do any of you have anyone that you use that does great work for a great price?

Blame Uncle Sam.....Not Us

In the next two weeks, everyone in our house will be fixed! Well not US.....just the four legged ones! Our two Siamese have already had the displeasure of the procedure. And now on to Tillie and Possum! Then Maggie goes in to have surgery on what we hope is just a hernia! Hopefully it is nothing more serious than that. Really guys it is Uncle Sam's fault not ours! He sent us the tax money back!

See below all the bribes we brought home hoping that it would make them forget!


Possum checking out the new scratching post! Maybe they will use this and not the real carpet!
Possum loves these cardboard scratching posts! He even sleeps on them so this time we bought him one that is a "chaise lounge"! Him and Snittens are fighting over it! The fact that it is covered in Cat Nip has something to do with the "not wanting to share"!


He claimed his bed!

Maggie is a sucker for Pigs Ears!
And the most unsuspecting of them all! Tillie (Mama Tills)

Double Time for $2.99

I saw the cutest idea on a blog. If I can remember where I saw it I will post and certainly give them credit. They used your average Scrabble game to decorate with!



I found this brand new scrabble game at one of my favorite local thrift stores for only $2.99. So I can either decorate with it or take it down and play a fun game one night! I love when things have more than one use!

Other Things This Morning

If any of you know of an coupon classes, photography, sewing, digital scrap booking, crafting/painting, and/or blogging classes in Auburn/Opelika please let me know. I will go as far as Montgomery, Atlanta or Birmingham depending on what day of the week (and of course the price!) and what time it is offered.

It was just brought to my attention that the link to Kelly's Korner was bad in my "Blogging is the Best" post. I have corrected it! So sorry readers and most of all Kelly!

Under Construction

I am working on some changes on my Blog. The way it looks now is not how I plan to keep it. We shall see how this goes as I am really not sure of what I am doing! Have any of you ever used the kits that look like scrapbook paper? I guess digital scrapbooking? Are they easy to put together? I can use these for blog backgrounds, right? And if I use of these can I set one up or do you have to purchase a program? Keep your "Blog Typing Fingers" crossed! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

Easter Blessings

Hope that you all, all you and ya'll had a Blessed Easter. We went and visited a church for Easter service. It is a church that Cas has been to before and a very large church. It was very packed as we had to go up and sit in the balcony. We had to go to the early service at 8:30 so that we could make our brunch reservations. Cas had already predicted that the service would be the mostly older crowd. Sure enough I could look down from way up high and see the sea of white and gray hair and all the little ladies in their pastel colored suits. I thought about the fact that some of those couples had probably spent 40-50 Easters together! There was still a good mix of young adults and families in this service too. I like looking around and what people chose to wear for Easter. The blue and white seer-sucker suit seemed to be popular yesterday with the men! After church we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Ariccia's, for Easter brunch. It is a "fine dining" place! We gorged ourselves with made to order omelets, bacon, sausages, fruits, pastries, fancy pizza's and calzones, pasta's, and most of all PRIME RIB. You know it is one of our favorites! They had anything that you could want and more! Best of all they had the best dessert station set up with tons of mini bite size desserts. We were so stuffed afterwards that we went home to take a nap!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Yard Selling

I woke up early this morning to go "Yard Selling"! I didn't feel well so I kind of poked along taking my sweet time. I have not been to a yard sale in a long time but have been inspired by other bloggers to get out there and find items at a thrifty price that I can re-purpose in our house. The 1st one I made it to had some cute things and an awesome table. I sadly did not have a place for t. The only thing I purchased was this cute little all hook. I am thinking it will make it to the guest room to hold one of my baby dresses on.

I made it to a few more. Did not see anything that would work for my French Country needs and moved on. I did make sure to stop by the one that was listed in the paper that said she was raising money for her Breast Cancer 3-day walk. I did not see much so I purchased 2 old "Country Home" magazines for 25 cents. I like to look through and get ideas. I did not want to leave empty handed as it was a good cause. When I was heading to the other side I saw plants for sale. You know we buy plants any chance we can. She had Canna Lillie's and Day Lillie's for sale. Lord knows I DO NOT NEED another Day Lilly. She had already started them in pots that you can plant. So I thought I would get a couple for Cas for Easter.



Canna Lillie'sHundreds of Day Lillie's above to be separated. There are hundreds more that have already been dug up to move! They came with the house.

Hip-Hoppy Easter

THIS is so cute! Enjoy

Please Splurge

I was reading AOL today and they have an article of things that are considered wasteful spending. O.K. that is fine I admit we all have done it and will continue to do it. I have been guilty of buying things in a prettier package or something that was name brand (mind you I am soo cheap now). They even suggest that you buy whole carrots to cut them to make the cute little small ones as they say it's cheaper. O.K. that is fine too as I just disposed of some this week. But then I get to the tip where they say that spending money on underwear is just wasteful! They suggest going natural. Really??? Because my all time favorite underwear came from Wal-Mart not Nieman Marcus! Mind you they have discontinued it and I have gone to all links including searching EBay and Wal-Mart Canada online for them. I swear I am not lying. Ladies (and Gentleman) I am not going down the list of gross/ungross reasons as to why you should wear them (atleast in public). I should not have to point this out to you! You are entitled to do what you want when you are at home. I have not a problem with that. Do what you want......but I say you should go out and "splurge"!

See I Told You

I was reading Southern Hospitality as I usually do. She just posted about a store closing in Birmingham and they have things marked down to 80%. Oh how I wish I would be in Birmingham this weekend. But I would have not know this had I not read her blog! See I told you!
Rhoda is a "Devine Decorator" and can make the cheapest thing look like a million dollars! She has the vision to turn "trash" into "treasures"! She will make you want to get up to "Go Yard Selling" as we say here in the South. In fact I think I will look for some this weekend all though it is probably a slow weekend for them.

Oh and I have over 900 clicks on my blog! That is 10 more than an hour ago! I think when it hits 1,000 I will have to do some kind of give-away. I will start working on that. But I must know who my readers are! Don't be a chicken. Please leave me a comment! Good Friday to You All!

Blogging is the Best

I checked my Blog this morning and I was so excited to have some comments! I have had almost 900 (hopefully have 900 by the end of the day) clicks on my blog. Maybe some of you read it all the time, maybe some read it occasionally or maybe some of you just ended up here by accident. Whether you like it or not I do plan on continuing to blog as I find it to great fun and a way to document a lot that happens in my life. I do love to scrapbook but have not had much time nor do I have a good setup yet for my scrap booking. If you do read please leave me a comment. I would love to know who you are and what you think. Especially if I don't know you I would love to read your blog! I get some of the greatest ideas on here and I hope to share a lot of my finished projects on here with all of you (soon)!
One of my best friends, Charity, has finally started a blog.....after stalking many of you in the blogosphere! You can go here to read her blog. O.K. Charity I have put you out there so you have to start blogging regularly. More than one time in 10 days is a must! :)
Another fabulous blogger......The Southern Queen Bee left me a comment! I just love her blog and she is a women after my heart with that title! Southern Queen Bee I must tell you that my name is Melissa, which means Honey Bee, and I am from Alabama (Southern) and well I am a Queen! I also have a great passion for finding little bees to put around the house. I am more into the rustic brownish ones that are more shabby chic looking! All of should go and check her out!
I honestly have to tell you that I have been more educated on couponing, cheap decorating, recipes, crafting, holiday ideas, etc by reading blogs than I have ever have been before. I am a sucker for a cheap idea that looks great. Oh and on the note of the coupons I have been blog-informed that there will not be any in Sundays paper due to Easter. I can't wait to get to the point where I can do give-aways!
Also, Kelly from Kelly's Korner has a story on her blog today for a family that needs prayers. Please swing by and read. Kelly is another absolutely fabulous blogger. She is a Godly woman and could probably give you a great testimony on how blogging can certainly change your life. Just a few months ago she welcomed a beautiful baby into the world and they were told that she might not make it through the night. She continued blogging through all of it. Each day no matter what they had happen, good or bad, she would blog. There were so many people praying for her family. She had bloggers she had never met come to visit her, send email and cards and most of all PRAY for her family. It just goes to show you that you do not have to have met a person physically to extend yourself to them!
Get out there and blog!!!!!!!!! You might actually make a difference in someones day!
Happy Good Friday!

Free-Kin Fabulous (Thankful Thursday)

I just love FREE things! I ran my mail out to the mail box to drop some cards in it on my way out and low and behold there was a little surprise waiting for me. A pack of Stride Sweet Cinnamon gum! I register for a lot of free things online and it is so fun to get goodies in the mail......especially when I don't even remember signing up for them. I know it is just gum but it is a regular size pack, not a sample size and I just ran out of gum so it was a great find! I am so thankful for the little (free) things this Thursday!

Palm Sunday

We did not make it to church this morning but we did this evening. Our friends Adam and Ashley were in town and the group, Footprints, that Adam used to perform in played together tonight. They were really good and Adam is a really great singer. Don't worry I will be calling on him for a special day. Halfway there I realized I left the camera battery at the house so I could not take pictures to post or video for that matter! But I did get a few with my camera phone. The youth minister of that church did have a great message for us that night though. He spoke about the fact that people will shout from the rooftops who their favorite sports team is but won't do the same for God! He also told a great story about how he had been praying for new floors and his house flooded which majorly inconvenienced his life. Someone had pointed out to him though that he had been praying to be able to get new floors and now he was getting them!

Happy Holy Week!

Rainbow Qauckers

Look at these cute little critters. I think two would look great in the backyard.

Spring Fluff

Flag from the thrift store for 99 cents. Tied it up with some tulle and a dowel!

I found these bugs that I had bought last year. I hung them out on the back porch and think they look cute.

I thought I would post a few pictures of my Spring Fluffing!
These are just a few pictures. I share my love of Easter and rabbits that my Mother had so I love decorating for Easter!