Fun JAMS Day

The other Wednesday, our church had a great celebration of the last JAM (Jesus and Me) for this school year.  I thought I would share some fun pictures with you.

Hamp had a blast in the jumpy thing.  I think the other boys had a blast watching him!

Knox headed down the slide even with the broken collar bone!  You can tell the collar bone is not slowing him down by much!

But Knox spent more time making water balloons!  There were a few people that had wished he had stayed on the slide!

Hamp got a little hungry but he wouldn't slow down to stop and eat.  So he just ate on the run!

Hamp learned to limbo!!

Thanks to Art and Sarah who did such a great job with the kids this year!  And the end of year party was a big hit too!!

What's Blooming Now...Achillea millefolium...

I want to share with you another plant from my garden.  This is a plant that I use to not think too much of.  It use to remind me of weeds that I use to have to pull up when I was kid!  But the newer cultivars that have come out are great additions to any garden.

The plant is Yarrow or Achillea millefolium.  Yarrow is a herbaceous perennial that is drought tolerant.  Common yarrow responds best to soil that is poorly developed and well drained.  If your soil does not drain well, then your Yarrow will have an increased chance of developing mildew.

Yarrow can get weedy.  So it is best to divide your plants every couple of years.  Dividing will also help prolong the Yarrow's short life span.

Yarrow is a plant with an old and interesting past. 

It has a long history as a powerful 'healing herb' used topically for wounds, cuts and abrasions. The genus name Achillea is derived from mythical Greek character, Achilles, who reportedly carried it with his army to treat battle wounds. This medicinal action is also reflected in some of the common names mentioned below, such as Staunchweed and Soldier's Woundwort.

In the Middle Ages, yarrow was part of a herbal mixture known as gruit used in the flavouring of beer prior to the use of hops.  Yarrow has also been used as a food, and was very popular as a vegetable in the seventeenth century. The younger leaves are said to be a pleasant leaf vegetable when cooked as spinach, or in a soup. Yarrow is sweet with a slight bitter taste. The leaves can also be dried and used as a herb in cooking.

Yarrow was also used in traditional Native American herbal medicine. Navajo Indians considered it to be a "life medicine", chewed it for toothaches, and poured an infusion into ears for earaches.  The Pawnee used the stalk for pain relief. The Chippewa used the leaves for headaches by inhaling it in a steam. They also chewed the roots and applied the saliva to their appendages as a stimulant. The Cherokee drank a tea of common yarrow to reduce fever and aid in restful sleep.

I personally like the way the foliage contrasts with the other plantings that are around it in both color and shape.  The blooms are great for drying and using in flower arrangements.

Yarrow is an interesting perennial to try in your garden.

Send your pictures if you have Yarrow growing in your garden!

Have fun playing in the dirt.....

Last Day of School

Tuesday was the last day of school. The students got to leave at 11:45 am, so a half day for Knox.  

He and I went out to lunch during my lunch break to his favorite place--Sosebee's Hotdogs.

On the drive there, I noticed Knox looking really sad. 

So I asked, "What's wrong?"

Knox says, "I miss school already!"

Is this really my kid???

I Need a Vaction!!

Ok, I think I'm back...maybe...

As much as I love the end of school, it is probably the most stressful time of the year!  I am a teacher and I am the one who does testing and scheduling for our students.  Nothing is more stressful than testing and then making sure that the grades are recorded correctly especially in the high school transcripts.  Ugh!!!

That's the reason I have not been blogging the last few days.  It maybe a few more days before I get my wind back for blogging!  But I am ready for summer!

And I need a vacation!!!  Today is the last day of school and none too soon!  Now I can start getting ready for our summer tractor show schedule!  Yes I said tractor show schedule.  We'll be gone for two weeks during June and July.  We'll be traveling through 7 states as we make a whril wind tour with our Farmall Cub!

I'll be sharing with you all the wild adventures we always seem to have when we go on these tractor show tours!  I also have some great gardening posts I am working on for later this week! 

So keep following!  I'll be back in the swing soon!  And thanks for being such great blogging friends!

The Double Bubble Bath

Yesterday was...well...let's just say it was good to get to go to bed.

You could say it started at school with the last day of EOCT testing.  I, with everybody elses help, got testing done and ready to be sent off for grading.  I hate giving tests!  The state could save millions if they would do testing on-line, but I'm only a teacher, what do I know!  I never knew what was involved with testing until I became testing coorinator at my school.  Can we all say headache??

When I got home, it was crazy as usual.  The boys went with me to work out and then we went to the grocey store.  After we got home I started cooking yogurt and fixing supper.  I had Knox draw bath water for him and Hamp. 

While the water was running for the bath, Knox went out to get and clean the cooler for my yogurt.  I went and turned off the bath water all the while my yogurt is still cooking on the stove. 

I'm too busy with cooking to bathe Hamp so I asked Knox to give him a bath.   As Knox was going to get Hamp, we both heard Hamp and water splash! Then the following conservation...

 Knox: "I found Hamp!"

Me: "Where?"

Knox:  "In the bath tub!"

Me: "In WHAT?"

Knox:  "The bath tub!"

Me:  "With his clothes on?"

Knox:  "Yes! And his diaper!"

Me:  "Well, get his clothes off and let him get his bath.  I can't leave the stove."

A few moments pass.....

Knox:  "Oh no!! MOMA!!"

Me:  "What!"

Knox:  "MOMA, Hamp got in the bath tub with a dirty diaper!"

Me:  "Well take the dirty diaper off!"

Knox:  "MOMA!!  There's poop all in the bath water!!"

Me:  "I'll be there in a minute!"

So after I got the yogurt strained and off the stove, I went and cleaned up the poopy bath!  We then drew water for another bubble bath.

Now we just wait for the next big adventure to happen!!

Free Ice Cream!!

Grab the kids and head to Walmart this Saturday 5/22 … (for those of you brave enough to attempt Walmart on Saturday)

 From 11am -4pm have a free ice cream sundae with Breyers new and exclusive flavors, and Blue Bunny Premium Ice Cream and new All Natural Frozen Yogurt topped with Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, Reddi-wip, and Fresh Strawberries.

While supplies last, click here for more details and to see if your store is participating.

What's Blooming Now: Rhododendron

In the south, where I live, Azaleas are king!  But their "cousins", the Rhododendron, comes in a close second.  This year as been an awesome year for both of these spring bloomers! Everywhere I go, the Azaleas and Rhododendrons are completely showing out!  But its the Rhododendron's that I have loved looking at this year.

A little about Rhododendrons....

Rhododendrons are shrubs of the genus Rhododendron which is in the heath family (family Ericaceae) which includes heathers, mountain laurels, blueberries and cranberries. Since almost all of these plants require acidic soil, they are often referred to as the family of acid-loving plants. Rhododendrons are found in the wild, chiefly in mountainous areas of the arctic and north temperate zones. They typically have large, shiny, leathery evergreen leaves and clusters of large pink, white, or purplish flowers.  The Rhododendrons found in the landscape are hybrids of these wild varieties. 

Rhododendrons have large bloom heads with many single blooms in a large cluster, while Azaleas only have one to three bloom clusters.  This is why I really love Rhododendrons.  When they bloom, they BLOOM! 

In Zone 7 and higher, Rhododendrons need to be planted in a shady area.  They will have to be supplemented with water in dry summers.  My Daddy planted Rhododendrons by the air conditioning unit.  This keeps them watered through out the dry summer months due to the unit's water run-off.

Another thing to remember about Rhododendrons (and Azaleas) is that they are acid-loving plants.  They require acidic soil.  Before planting Rhododendrons, get a soil sample from your local extension service.  To keep the soil pH acidic, use Rhododendron fertilizer annually after the plants have finished blooming.  This will insure that your plants will continue to be beautiful for years to come!

Our Pest Killers!

I have talked about my chickens and how much I love having fresh eggs all the time.  But we have come to realize a great benefit of "my girls" wondering around my house...they are my pest control girls!

Yep that's right!  These girls are getting rid of not only the fire ants but they are getting the creepy, crawlies that try to invade the house!

I have caught them eating spiders and even crickets all around the outside of the house.  I still think the best thing is the fire ant controller that our chickens are.  I don't worry about the kids playing in the yard and getting into the dreaded ant mounds, being stung alive before they know it!

Our chickens go back to thier coop every night as soon as the sun goes down.  We usually keep the chickens in thier coop until we come home.  We like to be at home when we turn them loose. 

The wildest thing about these chickens is that the they will go right up to the road but have never gotten in the road!  Hopefully, they won't have us asking the question, "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

The Hubby Gets His Toy Stuck!

Few years before my Daddy passed away, he bought a new lawnmower.  It's a Dixiechopper and it flies!!  It will go way too faster than you need a lawnmower to go.  The Dixiechopper cut Daddy's grass cutting time in half!  Daddy would cut grass about everyday in the summer time.  (We have about 6 acres of grass to cut between our house, my parents house and the rest of the Ponderosa!)  What had especially drawn him to the Dixiechopper was the fact that it had a cup holder!  Oh yes!  It's the little things that men desire in their power toys!!

Well, since my Daddy died, Hubby has assumed the grass cutting chore at the Ponderosa!  Now he works full time (pretty much) and doesn't find the solace that Daddy did in the grass cutting.  This means that the grass is lucky to get cut once a week!  With all the rain we have had and still keep having, Hubby has found that he is constantly behind in the grass cutting department.

The other day, when we were having friends over, Hubby was cutting the grass for the kids to play. (We were afraid they might get lost!)  He was still cutting the grass when our friends arrived.  As we sat down to chat, I realized that the lawnmower had quit.  Hubby was no where to be found.  What had happened?

As our company and I started to look for Hubby we found him like this...

He was stuck!!  He had gotten the lawnmower stuck in the ditch by the road!  The worst part (besides the fact that it takes two grown men to pick up the lawnmower to get it unstuck) is that this is NOT his first time!  He does this AT LEAST twice a summer!!

This is the reason for this post....

Maybe this will embarrass him enough that he wouldn't do it again!

I ain't holding my breath!!

Showing What I Can Do

I was sitting in the living room catching up watching TV when I heard these little feet.  They were getting faster and coming closer.  I also kept hearing laughing.  It was Hamp! 

He has learned to RUN!  He was running through the living room, then the dinning room, through the kitchen and then back through the living room.  Nothing could have been more fun for him!  Hamp made at least 10 laps until something else caught his interest.

I couldn't help but reflect at how just a few months ago he was just learning how to pull up!  I better watch out, I may have a long distance runner on my hands!


Now, my number 1 son has been moping around the house since Friday when he broke his collarbone.  He has been trying to find something he can do that won't make him hurt his arm.  He can't play his normal weekend play and he can't finish building his tree perch.

But Knox found something to keep him busy this afternoon...

He used the grass cuttings to "draw" a TV.  He then put his name inside the TV. 

Awww...to be 10 again with a vivid imagination!

Sunday Spotlight: "Green" House Party!

The other Saturday I got to go to my first House Party event!  If you don't know anything about House Party check out their web link here.  This party was spotlighting White Cloud's new "Green" line of paper products.  I got a free 4 roll of bath tissue and a coupon for a FREE 2-roll pack of paper towels!

I was excited to get to try some new products that are environmentally friendly.  White Cloud was nice enough send a reusable bag to put all our great goodies in!!

Amy, our host, had us all bring a white elephant gift to exchange.  I was lucky enough to get an oil and bread set.  I was excited to get it!  I got to "steal" it from someone else.

I have been impressed with the White Cloud Green Earth paper towels so far.  They hold up really well and are very absorbent.  I haven't been too kean on recycled paper products because in my experience that they didn't hold up as well.  These paper towels DO seem to hold up as well as regular paper towels!  Even though we are not big paper towel user at our house, these seem to be lasting as long as our regular paper towels.

I have also been impressed with the White Cloud Green Earth bath tissue (TP--to the rest of us!).  My crew here at home goes through some TP!  It amazes me just how much me go through in a weeks time!  The White Cloud Green Earth bath tissue seems to be a hit with the crowd here!  It is got the softness that we love and is still able to last longer than 2 days!  We have tried other recycled TPs and have found them to be rough and not as absorbent.  White Cloud is holding up without falling apart before you finish using it!

White Cloud Green Earth products have shown me that recycled paper products have really come a long way!  This House Party event as even got me ready to become a White Cloud Green Earth user.

They're Renaming the ER for Us!

This morning started like any other morning....

I got up after the obituaries on the radio (Yes, I know, I have become my grandmothers!).  I get my clothes on and head to the kitchen to fix my morning eggs.  I wake up Knox and he goes out to walk the dog and check the fish.  While Knox is doing his morning chores, I settle down to eat my breakfast and enjoy my hot tea (I don't drink coffee.).

Knox brings the dog in the house and goes back out.  I see him playing in the magnolia tree.  He had tied off a rope in one of the tree's limb and made a climb rope out of it the night before.  So he was out there playing on it again before school. 

Now I didn't think anything of this!  Playing in the magnolia was really normal for him.  He has tons of energy when he gets up in the mornings and we just let him get out as much as he can before he has to get on the school bus.

I looked back outside to check on him and saw him on the ground!  I opened the door and could hear him crying.  He was rolling around and crying that it hurt.  He had fell about 10 feet when his climb rope became untied!

I made sure he could move his arms and legs--no broken bones right?  But as I get him inside and take his shirt off is when I notice it!  A blue bludge on his collar bone!  When Hubby looks at it, we realized that we were going BACK to the ER!

Now what you have to realize is just how much my family has been to the ER or hospital this past year!  When we had our taxes done, we found that we  and the insurance company had paid over $80,000 in medical bills last year!  We had been to the ER over 6 different times!  We should have our own wing i the ER.

When they x-rayed his collar bone, we found out that it was broken!  There's not much you can do for a broken collar bone but put the arm in a sling and take pain meds.  So that's what our orders were when we left the ER. 

We made it home by 10:00 am.  I stayed out of work to make sure that Knox didn't have a reaction to the pain meds they gave him.  He has been trying to ajust to his new situation. 

While he rested, I snoozed!  It was kind of good to take a day off to get some relaxaztion.  Since Knox didn't feel like doing much, we just laid around the rest of the morning watching TV.  I started to do some blogging, but I fell asleep before the computer booted up!  That was my cue to take a nap!

Knox has reminded me everytime when its time for his pain meds!  He is not handling the pain too well!  Sleeping tonight will be interesting! 

He told his Daddy that this has been the longest Friday EVER!  He keeps telling us that he should have never been in the tree this morning and that he should have had Daddy check his knot!  I don't think we need to get on to him about tying good rope knots anymore!

NeilMed Neti Pot FREE Neti Pot Facebook Offer!!

I spot lighted NeilMed Sinus Rinse in my Sunday Spotlight.  Read about it here.  Now NeilMed is givig away Neti Pots!

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Eggs, Eggs, Eggs

I love having fresh eggs!!  That's what I love most about having laying hens running around the house.  Fresh eggs every morning!  Oh how good!

I thought I would share with y'all how I fix eggs in the mornings.  I have found that it is just as easy to fix a hearty meal of eggs in the morning as it is to pour a bowl of cereal and milk.

Knox likes his eggs scrambled.

Hamp likes his eggs scrambled and over easy (omelet style).

Now I like both of the above ways, but when I have a little more time, I love me some Egg's Benedict!

It's how we like to start our days!

Eggs--they do the body good!!

Oh, The Train is Coming!!

Tuesday I made a post about National Train Day celebration in Toccoa May 8, 2010.   What I didn't share with you was what happened after all the events were over and just about everyone but my train "crazy" crew had left.

Hamp got to experience his first freight train next to the tracks. 

Now if you have never been close to train tracks when a frieght train come flying by, you just better not be wearing a dress and heels!  The wind will just about knock you over if you aren't ready.  The sound, especially, the engines is deafing!  But it is way cooool!!

So Hamp and Daddy see the train coming!  Hamp is not sure what that big, black moving thing is!

The six engines fly by as Hamp watches them pass by!  What is Daddy laughing at?

This is what Daddy's laughing at....

Hamp's not too sure about that big old noisy train! 

But little man had fun!!

Watch Out, They're BACK!!

I just got a tick off of my Knox! 

Yes a big, old, ugly tick!!

Thank goodness he has blonde hair!  It makes the ticks stand out!

Check our kiddos...the ticks are BACK!!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Happy Birthday to Grandmoma!!

Just couldn't let today go by without telling my Moma....Happy Birthday!!  I have your Blizzard ready for you when you get home!

It's not nice to ask a Southern Lady how old she is!!

Broad River Rural Heritage Spring Farm Show

Saturday was a busy day for our family.  We started at 6:10 am with the celebration of National Train Day.  Then we finished packing and headed to Danielsville, Georgia.  We ended up at Holloway Hollow to help with our club's spring Farm Show.  We belong to the Broad River Rural Heritage Association.  Each year we host two Farm Shows, one in Danielsville, the other in Toccoa.

The show features lots of tractors but there are other things going on too.  There was a saw mill, shingle mill, and tractor games.  The barrel race is one tractor game where a tractor driver sees how fast he or she can roll a barrel down a set course in the fastest time.  But the one we love watching is the slow tractor race!  This is where the last tractor to cross the finish line wins.  It's a race you just have to sit and watch!  And we've got two guys in our club that are always vining for this prize!  I hate that I didn't get any pictures of the tractor games and other stuff for you to see these but I had to help at the front gate. 

But I did get few shots of what was Hamp's favorite activity.  He spent most of his time playing in Mr. Wayne's golf cart!  It had tools all in the floor board and screws and bolts in the cup holders.  If he wasn't at the golf cart, he was on the bush hog.  Knox on the other hand was either helping at the shingle mill or playing in the creek!  I tried to get a picture of him wading in the creek but it just didn't happen!

Now the highlight of our spring show is the tractor ride!  Since we didn't have any of our tractors ready for this show we only brought our pedal tractors.  So when it came time for the tractor ride, Hubby borrowed a tractor from our friend Wayne.  This Ford he is on will fly!!  It will run at almost 40 mph--way fast for a tractor!

Hubby gets on the tractor and starts her up.  Now you have to realize Hubby has either worked on most types of tractors or he has rode/drove them.  He is passionate about his tractors and is constantly reading books/magazines about tractors.  Our bathroom is full of tractor parts manuals that he reads for fun!  What I'm getting at is that he knows what he is doing no matter what type of tractor he's on.  So when the Ford died each time he started to drive off, we couldn't help but tease him.  He didn't get to drive though because the Ford had a carberator problem! Hubby didn't get to go on the tractor ride so he stayed behind with me and Hamp (who was sound asleep by tractor ride time!).  We watched as Knox rode off with Mr. Wayne--he has to ride with him every year--and everybody else!

One of the coolest tractors at this year's show was an Oliver with steel wheels!  That's right--steel wheels!  Can you imagine riding a tractor with steel wheels all day plowing?  Just think how rough that would be!  That would shake you to your bones!! 

All-in-all, we had a great day!  If there is a Farm Show or Tractor Show any where near you, take the family, especially the kiddos!  I guarantee that you and the kiddos with learn something new as well as have a good time together!

Early Rise Brings a Prize!

This Saturday started really early for us!  We joined about 80 or so folks to welcome the Amtrak Crescent line into Toccoa for National Train Day.  I live with train nutts in my house!  My Hubby and Knox love just watching the trains go by.

So Saturday morning we were up and made it to downtown Toccoa just in time to watch the Crescent stop.  The Crescent came in right on time--6:10 am! 

As the Crescent leaves Toccoa, it leaves with our mayor, Bob Troup and his wife Betty as well as Sharon Crosby who handed out goodie bags from the city of Toccoa and the Chamber of Commerce.  It's a pretty cool thing our little town does every year!   We're one of only 3 stops that Amtrak makes in Georgia!  There are over 3000 people that get on and off the train at our depot and we don't even have a ticket office!

But what we always look forward to are the prizes that the City of Toccoa gives away after the train pulls out.  Last year Knox won a really awesome print celebrating the Amtrak's Crescent Line.  Since we got there a little late, I almost forgot to register for the prizes.  So right before the prizes were drawn for, I put all our names in for the drawing.  As Hubby and I stand talking to friends we get the word that they are calling for Knox.  He won AGIAN!!  He won two free round trip tickets to Atlanta!  This is the second year in a row that he won!  UNBELIEVABLE!  It wasn't the Grand Prize, but don't tell Knox that!

I'll say it again...I love my home town!  It just gets better the older I get!  It's a wonderful place to raise a family and to call home!  Saturday, I think, maybe some folks on their way to New Orleans learned that too!

Stumphouse Tunnel--the Tunnel That has No End

A few Sunday's ago we decided to take the scenic ride back home after going out for lunch after church.  We drove to a place my husband just loves to go to--Stumphouse Tunnel in Oconee County, South Carolina.

This is one of the most visited Historical Places in South Carolina but yet there are so many people that don't know the fascinating history of the unfinished railroad tunnel.  The following tells a little of the history of Stumphouse Tunnel...

The tunnel was first proposed in 1835 by residents of Charleston, South Carolina as a new and shorter route for the Blue Ridge Railroad between Charleston and the Ohio river valley area which until then was only accessible by bypassing the mountains entirely to the South and then traveling up north through Georgia and middle Tennessee. In 1852, 13 miles of tunnel were proposed to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains through South Carolina, North Carolina, and into Tennessee. Construction on the railway was begun in the late 1850s and was successful through most of South Carolina until hitting the mountains around Wallhalla in Oconee County. There Stumphouse tunnel along with three other tunnels was to be built.
  Construction on Stumphouse tunnel began in 1856 when the George Collyer Company of London.  By 1859, the State of South Carolina had spent over a million dollars on the tunnel and refused to spend any more on the project, therefore the tunnel work was abandoned. The tunnel had been excavated to a length of 4,363 feet of the planned 5,863 total feet. Today, where the tunnel was meant to end on the other side of the mountain, there remains a mound of earth (intended for the railway tracks) submerged during the summer months under Crystal Lake, located just west of Highway 28.

Inside the tunnel the temperature is a constant 50 degrees with humidity of 85%. Beginning in the 1950s Stumphouse tunnel was used by Clemson University to grow blue cheese until the 1970s when the blue cheese operation was relocated to air-conditioned cheese ripening rooms where the tunnel environment was duplicated.


Today, Stumphouse tunnel is operated as a public park along with nearby Isaqueena Falls by the city of Walhalla. The tunnel is easily accessible by foot, a few yards from a gravel parking lot. The structural integrity of the tunnel is solid and almost no cracking is apparent minus an enlarged vent halfway through the tunnel. In 1999 this vent was impacted by a rock slide, however in 2000 the town of Walhalla re-excavated the tunnel and safely returned it to public use.

The Stumphouse Tunnel Complex was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

The tunnel is really dark!  We were lucky to have a flash light so that we could walk in the tunnel.  We didn't get to walk all the way to the end of the tunnel like we have before.  I found while I was looking up the history for this post that there was a cave in at the vent shaft which is not far from the end of the tunnel.  So we only got as far as where the blue cheese doors are.

I took a picture looking from inside the tunnel to the tunnel entrance.  It looks pretty spooky looking!  At the entrance there was a low mist that came out of the tunnel the day we were there.  It was a hot day and the cool air from the tunnel hit the hot air of the day caused this low mist that you can see from the picture I made of the boys at the tunnel's entrance.

This is a great place to bring the kiddos!  You not only have the tunnel to explore, but a great waterfall that is an easy hike from the tunnel's entrance.  The falls are called Issaqueena Falls and is beautiful!  We didn't hike down to them the day we went to the tunnel due to the fact that we didn't bring the backpack carrier for Hamp.  Hubby and I decided that we didn't feel like having to carry him without the backpack carrier!

If you are ever near Wahalla, South Carolina, be sure to stop off and see this fascinating place! 

Hamp's New Tricks!!

Now that my little one, Hamp, is mobile, he is learning all types of new tricks.  It seems that everyday he comes up with a new trick.  I thought I would share some of these new tricks.

Let's start with what happened after dinner the other day.  I'm cleaning the kitchen when I look around and find Hamp on the dinning room table.  He ha gotten up on the bench and then up on the table.  This was the first time! 

I have found him 4 or 5 times this past week either on the table or getting ready to get on the table!  I think he has been coming up with ways to get away from me or Hubby or Knox so that he can get back on the dinning room table!  I have found that the more I keep the table clean, the more he wants to get on the table.  So my solution...don't clean off the dinning room table!  (This isn't going to last too long!)

Next trick goes along with the dinning room table.  He actually learned this one first...climbing up in the rocking chairs or any chair. 

The other day we were all outside.  I was working in my flower garden and Hamp was playing on his little black truck.  I turned around and Hamp was not in his truck.  When I started looking, found him up on the front porch sitting in the rocking chair eating banana bread!  Don't he look like a little man!

Now his last trick!  As I've said before, our house is over 50 years old and was my grandparents house before we moved in a few years ago.  I let Hamp get into the kitchen cabinets that don't have anything breakable or dangerous in them.  There is a half door kitchen cabinet that opens to a huge inter cabinet storage space that has all my tupperware in it. 

While I was cooking the other day, Hamp was playing in the under my feet as usual.  I soon realized that he wasn't under my feet!  But where did he go?  I could hear him, but could see him.  I found him in the cabinet!   

He has learned to not only open the door, but how to close it with him in the cabinet!  Every time I have been in the kitchen since that day I find him getting in this cabinet.  It's better than any type of fort you could buy!

Keep coming back to check out any new tricks Hamp comes up with!  Every day there seems to be a new adventure around here!

Sunday Spotlight: NeilMed Sinus Rinse

If you're like me and my family, this time of year the nose runs more than the Mississippi River!  I am blessed with year round allergies that I can control with over the counter medicine.  But when I get a cold--watch out!!  I can't stop the runny nose!  It doesn't take long for me to get a sinus infection. 

A few years ago, my allergist suggested that I try a sinus rinse.  He recommended NeilMed Sinus Rinse.  The thought of purposely putting salt water up my nose gave me the willies!  But the doctor assured me that I would thank him for it!  He said that if I started using the NeilMed Sinus Rinse at the start of my runny or stuffy nose that I would cut my chances of getting a sinus infection down by over half!

So reluctantly I tried it.  The first time I used it a thought I was going to die!  I immediately could tell the difference--I could breath!  I didn't like it but I could tell it was worth it.  After about two days of using the NeilMed Sinus Rinse my runny and stuffy nose was just about gone.  I didn't have that much nasal drainage either!  I didn't have to go on antibiotics for a sinus infection.  The pain of the salt water up my nose made the difference--it WAS worth it!!

Lately the boys have had awful runny noses!  They have nasal drainage along with it.  Usually this means that they will end up with sinus infections.  I have been using NeilMed Sinus Rinse on them each night and they have kept each of them from getting sinus infections.  The runny noses haven't stopped yet but they are more bearable!

I really love my NeilMed Sinus Rinse!  It is a sinus headache saver when used the start of a runny nose or nasal drainage.  Check out this video to see how to use the NeilMed Sinus Rinse properly.  You'll find it a safe and more natural way to help you get rid of that awful nasal drainage and the dreaded sinus infection.  It's not the most glamours thing to do but it works!  Try it for yourself!  See if you can see the difference NeilMed Sinus Rinse will make in your health!

Walgreens Anniversary!! Check this out!!!

This is a BIG HEADS UP for all of you who live any where near Toccoa!  I was in the Walgreens in Toccoa yesterday and got a big insite that they will be celebrating their first anniversiary starting in the next few weeks!  The heads up was that there are going to be some BIG BARGINS!! 

So get those coupons and Registar Rewards ready folks!!

High Value, Rare Coupons!!

These coupons from Southern Savers are great and won’t last long. The potatoes coupon in particulare is only through Sunday or until the print limit is reached so really don’t wait on that one.

La Creme Mousse print here (use the zip code 53027)
Green Giant Potatoes 5 lb bag print here
TGI Fridays Skillet meals print here
Hefty One Zip Bags print here (B1G1 at Harris Teeter this week)


(The hefty coupons are getting more rare lately so print them and wait for a sale in your area)