THE SITS GIRL CHALLENGE DAY 2, Pictures!

Today's Fall into Blogging Challenge is to share fall pictures from your neck of the woods. So I am going to share pics from Hayesville, NC and our old hood, Chi-Town.

The kids October 2009

 

October 2011 view of our old backyard

Football=Fall 2012

Picture from this morning taken from the parking lot of a church. This church is right on the lake, gotta love that!

 

And this is a picture from the Chamber of Commerce Website. Lake Chatuge in all it's fall glory.

Falling Back into Blogging, School Memories

Today is the first day in the weeklong blogging event run by The SITS girls. I'm happy to participate in this fun challenge. Today we have a writing prompt centered around school memories. 

This is a bit problematic for me, as it turns out I am not one of those people who remembers much about their school days. I am one of those people that looks at a picture posted on facebook and thinks:

"Wow, obviously that is me in that picture, and yet I have no recollection of this occassion at all."

Here is a prime example, I was either a freshman or a sophomore.  I am in the picture, I recognize who I am with, and I don't remember this day at all.

 So which camp are you in when it comes to the good old days?  Do you remember your HS locker number? When you lost your tooth in 3rd grade at school?  What school lunches were like in JR High?

Or is it all a blur with a few notable moments?

Is it Smokey Mountains or Smoky Mountains?

I know all I would need to do is google and I could know the possibly definitive answer to that very question. I'm not going to google.

 I wanted to actually write that last sentence as: I'm not going to though. However, we all know that is a dangling dangle of a sentence ending, so I restrained myself.

It was chilly last night, maybe as low as the high 40s and I swear the leaves changed a bit overnight.  So it appears that right on time, Fall has arrived. Excellent!, I say.  I also say, no hurry to turn on the heat, let's enjoy some sweater weather and throw another blanket on the bed if you are cold.  Better yet, take one of my dogs, they warm up a bed.

Thinking of blankets and cool temps reminds me of socks.  This in turn, makes me think of my boys and their always dingy white socks.  That last thought leads me to a coupon I have coming to me via Vocalpoint.   You could get a coupon for the new Vivid White from Tide too, if you were my facebook friend.  Click here if you'd like to do that, and if you already are, just check my page for the coupon link.  OH I have high hopes that this will help my laundry! I'll keep you posted on the results!

#Wordless Wednesday

Here in my too lazy to get out of the car pic showing why they are called the Smokey Mountains.

A letter from Bryce to his family

Date: November 1492

Dear Family:
Life aboard a ship is hard. The food is awful. It's hardtack and we have no fresh food. Good thing I brought my own food. I think I have scurvy from the lack of fresh food.
So I brought spices. If the captain finds the food he will use cat o nine tail which is a whip with glass on the end. My duty is to fire the cannon. My quarters (room) isn't very nice.
Love
Bryce H

Good Smells, Good Smells.

As you know, I'm a bzzagent.  That means that I take lots of surveys and share my opinions on a variety of different products and sometimes I qualify for freebies!  Recently I qualified for a campaign for Glade  Expressions.  This was very exciting, because with 3 kids 2 dogs and an old cat. Wait, let's not forget The Man, he can be smelly too!  Well with all of them, I need multiple smell enhancers.  For example, right now we have a Scenty Wax Scenter going right now up in the family room, I'm burning a candle downstairs and each bathroom has a spray at the ready.

Clearly, I know the need for air purification options.  I also have learned the hard way, that generic gets you a whole lot of nothing.  So I go for name brand products for the day to day and pretty party-plan products for my special occasions. Good thing, Glade gets me.  Glade offers a nice variety of seasonally scented products, and they aren't skimpy with the coupons! 

In conjunction with the current Glade Bzz I got a pack of high value coupons to share as well as a couple of free coupons for me to try the new Glade Expressions.  I went to my local Ingles Market and I got the refillable  Glade Expressions Mist. This is the pretty refillable fancy spray.

I have to say in all honesty, I was super, super surprised on how long the scent lingered with just a small spray.  It's a great value.  I purchased the Cotton and Italian Mandarin scent.  It was lovely, I forgot we had smell kids and pets for a few hours.  You can't put a price tag on that kind of bliss!

Why do I TGIF?

Tis Friday.  Wahoo! Do you have exciting plans?

Today I was thinking it really makes no sense that I'm excited it's Friday.

Why is that Victoria?

Well on one hand I am excited, I perceive myself as having relaxing free time on Saturdays and Sundays.


 On the other hand, the reality is I work on the weekends.  Now when I say work, I don't mean cleaning the house, though I *really* need to do that too. 

What I am talking about is a typical weekend for me:

FRI:
1. After work go to bank, pick up kids and deliver Tastefully Simple order.
2. Watch Nephew (unless his Nina and PawPaw are doing it).  Watching the B man is fun, if only we could bottle up that boys energy!
3. Take calls in my basement home office for a special call center project.
SAT:
More call center calls in the basement
Sat night take Anna and her cousin to a piano concert.  Technically maybe you say, that doesn't sound like work, that sounds like some quality cultural time.  Right I get that, the only reason it's not relaxing for me is I have to leave the house and can't wear PJs.
SUN:
Morning call center calls in the basement.
In the afternoon I am going over to a large retail store to do a merchandising audit. Then I'll need to file the report.

Well now I'm feeling a bit tired. Busy weekend ahead for me. I'm going to hold on to one thought, a little ray of sunshine in a busy/busy/busy life. 

I get to sleep in tomorrow.
Yes!

3rd Grade Spelling Word Sentences and an Ice Cream Bar Sweepstakes.

Anna H.

1. I can't believe next year I will be in fourth grade.
2. I left Illinois to come here.
3. I said can you please help me get up when I fell.
4. I have many shoes.
5. I am very good at back bends.
6. I've been and seen a shelter.
7. Being three is easy.
8. I leave school at 3:00pm.
9. Ms. Bettis is my teacher and she is between nice and country.
10. I have went to the sea.

Magnum Ice Cream - Belgian Chocolate Covered Ice Cream Bars

#WordlessWednesday!

Cooking. Beef/Chicken Toasted Sesame Stirfry  w/pea pods, a sliced orange pepper, onion and mushrooms.  Easy Peasy Courtesy of the Tastefully Simple Fix It Fast Collection! 

I had a fairly productive day.  I did work out, I didn't eat junk food and I got out my latest client newsletter!  Do you get my newsletter?  Click here to be added to my list!

Dance Moms Hayesville

Have you seen Dance Moms? It's a ' reality show' about seriously crazy moms and their kids who love to dance. Most of the show features the dance instructor and the moms yelling at each other.

Anna loves the show. She loves it so much she wanted to take dance classes. So here I am sitting outside the class, with some other moms as well as , the father of Shelly the dance instructor.

Why am I sitting out here when I could be at the grocery store or better yet at working out at the Rec Center?

Well as you may recall Anna has been having major school anxiety. I made a deal with her that I would stay here, just like the Dance Moms if she went to school all week. I figured this was a much better deal than money or treat bribery.

As for the moms here? So far everyone is getting along--haha. Kidding aside, well, they are talking about pet squirrels. Apparently, The pet squirrels are a species from Australia and make great pets.

See, it's true, you do learn something new everyday!.