Monday, April 26, 2010

Southern Savers and weekly ongoings

Hi all...trying to get back on track with posting at least weekly!
A month or two ago I went to a coupon saving seminar we sponsored at church. I went away with coupons swirling in my head and even dreamed about clipping coupons ALL night long. Well, things got busy and my coupons got put aside. This past weekend I sat down to do my Southern Savers "homework". I chose Walgreen's to be my first store to really work on. I went shopping twice this weekend at WGs and when I tallied my totals of what I SHOULD have spent and look at my checkbook of what I really spent....let me tell you ~ SHOULD have spent $80, what I DID spend $17.81!! Wahhhhooooo!!! I am now on a couponing roll and so excited that I wanted to share with everyone. On my page is a link for you to go to her site and learn all you need to know about smart couponing. Let me tell you at first it may seem kind of daunting, but stick with it and you will be saving a ton of money. I am stocking up on all the toiletries we will ever need and be able to send Taylor off with everything she will possibly need for school.
Speaking of school and Taylor...Saturday her best friend; Becca, Taylor and myself jumped in the Ford to head to Georgia. It was time to registar for classes, get her parking permit and college ID. My baby hasn't even graduated from high school yet and has her college ID!! Her schedule is in place and of course she's not too please about Total Fitness at 8am on MWF and Freshman Seminar on T&T same time...LOL. Told her they were classes she could roll out in her sweats and walk next door to the gym! Her day is pretty spread out, but time for downtime between classes. She's waiting to see what type of work study job she gets, her first choice was an aid in the Psych. dept. She seems pretty excited and seeing a few girls she went to Belize with years ago reg. helped too. I was surprised when I asked her what she was worried about the most and she replied, "Making friends." Those of you who truly know Taylor probably find that surprising also.

The road to Foster Care has come to an end for us...for now. At our first parenting class we were informed of 2 pieces of information that stopped it. One, windows in most houses are fine and dandy for you and our children to live in, but NOT large enough for a foster child! Yep, you heard me...the window or outdoor door in the child's bedroom has to be 5 sq. feet. Ours are not...missed it by an inch. Can't afford to take out the windows, cut a bigger hole in the house and replace the windows right now. Told me couldn't do it we wouldn't pass the Fire Marshall Inspection. Two, at first we were told we could most likely get a boy who's parental rights had been terminated....where the parent could not come back in and take him home...ours for adoption down the road if we wanted.  First thing we hear when we get to class ~ "Foster Care=TEMPORARY". We heard many horror and scary stories about kids being taken from foster parents and back to bio. parents...even after 3 yrs.! We went to our caseworker and she told us she could not gaurentee us a perm. child. We understand that DSSs main concern is the child and trying to keep the family togetehr, but.... So we talked and Eddie said he just could not sit back and watch my heart torn out when they came to take "our little boy".  The hardest part for me was sitting Megan down and explaining to her, she SO wanted a little brother. As the alligator tears were rolling down her sweet precious face I had her think about how upset she was right now and we hadn't even had a boy in our house yet, how would she feel if he came to live with us, she fell in love with him and then he had to leave.  To a 13 yr. old it didn't matter..she was just very mad and upset, can't blame her, I was too!
Well, time to end for right now...go cut your coupons!!
Have a blessed week.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Daily or monthly??

Oh my goodness!! I cannot believe it has been almost 2 months since I've posted anything...can you tell it is softball season??  Well, for a quick run down of what is going on with us right now here goes~hold on!!
1. Megan made the Byrnes High Sschool softball C-Team (middle school). We had a great season with only 3 losses. Unfortunatley Meg didn't see a whole lot of playing time, but as a 7th grader sometimes that's what happens...we saw this with Taylor too. We had a few tears, but a whole lot more laughs with friendships that developed while on the team.  Their season is over right now and she is waiting for D5 softball to start where she has played since she was 4 yrs. old.
2. But right at the moment Megan is on her way to Ground Zero in NY! The 7th graders left Tues. morning at 11:25am to head for NJ. They were to arrive at 1am...at 3am I received a text saying, "We JUST got here, bus broke down!" When I spoke to her this morning she said she got to bed about 4am and they were up at 7am heading to breakfast and Ground Zero. Today they will tour Manhattan, eat dinner in Central Park and go to the top of the Empire State Building tonight. Thurs. they get to sightsee downtown NY and then go to Madison Square Garden to see 101 Dalmations play. Friday head to Liberty Park, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, head for Washington DC and tour the mounuments and leave for Virginia. Sat. they spend the day at Kings Dominion Theme Park and get home about midnight.  I'm sure you know who will be sleeping ALL day Sunday!!
3. Taylor is busy finishing up her SENIOR year...can you believe it? I can go into that one too much or else I will be in tears, again. It's been a year filled with those. Most have received their announcement...it took me days to get them out (hopefully w/o tear drops on them!) She just started her THIRD job!! She is still working the afterschool program at the YMCA, trying to finish out her 2 week notice at Rainbow, a store at the mall and now working at Theo's Greek and Italian Resturant which we frequent quite a bit during softball season. She is loving Theo's! Next Sat. she, Megan and her BF are heading down to Emmanuel College (first time w/o mom in tow) to register for her fall classes!!
4. This Saturday Eddie and I will be attending our first Foster Parenting Class...yes, after raising kids for the past 18 years we get to go and see what all we've done wrong!! LOL About 1 1/2 months ago we decided to go ahead with Foster Parenting. We are wanting to get a little boy (hey, we do live in School District 5 ....gotta have a boy to play Rebel football!!) between the ages of 4-7 yrs. old. It has amazed us the paperwork alone that we have had to fill out. I think the two of us together have gone through a forest. The girls are as excited, if not more, than we are about having a new addition. Will keep everyone updated on that.
5. School is coming to a close soon...7 more Mondays!! This year my class hasn't been to the extremes that it has been in the past. All boys still, but not so aggressive. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go back and work at the Y this summer or try to pick up a few kids to watch at the house.  Eddie is still doing construction, trying to stay close to home till Taylor graduates. Still going back and forth on going back on the road or not.
Well, there is about 2 months update and hopefully it won't be that long again before I get back on here. Have a blessed week!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

We'll miss you Friend!! 2-20-10

RIP Chuck McCarter
We lost a dear friend this morning. From the information we have recieved it was a suicide, but if you knew Chuck you couldn't believe that. He ALWAYS had a smile on his face and laughter coming from his smile! I don't know if we will ever know the complete truth. All I do know is we have lost an awesome BBQing angel here on earth and I know they are having a BBQ party in Heaven today. We miss you already friend!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Sickies are Home Today 2/16/10

Well, a quick note....3 out of the 4 of us are home sick today. After I got up and drove my morning route I just felt horrible and came home to bed. Got home, Eddie is still home ~ tummy troubles. A few hours later we get a call from school and Taylor at school sick. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Megan stays healthy...she's got practice everyday, even in this COLD weather.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Let it Snow 2-12-10

"Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow"

As I left school at 3:30 today (teacher workday) and snow flakes were already flying and on the radio "Let it Snow" was playing! And it never fails that when they call for snow and all the "snow fanatics" as I call them, are rushing to get their milk and bread...it's time for my regular grocery shopping. By the time I got home from shopping and then taking Megan to her bestie's house (Beka) for the night the ground was covered. Taylor got home and her bestie (Becca) came to the house to pick her up for night and there was enough snow on the ground for them to have a snowball fight...even though everyone is afraid to throw a snowball at Taylor after last years snowball fight fiasco-Taylor fell and tore her ACL! It's 4 hours later and I just checked our front porch and we have 2.5" and the snow is still coming down! Of course, it's gonna be 48* tomorrow and will be all melted by Sunday!

"Students, please welcome Miss Watson to our class"
Last week Megan came home, handed me papers on Shadowing a Professional and asked me to check with Mrs. Freeman; her 2nd grade teacher, if she would be able to come shadow her for the day.  Megan has never mentioned anything about even thinking about going into teaching, but I said sure and e-mailed Mrs. Freeman the next day. Mrs. Freeman was brought to tears that one of her former students would want to come to her class and shadow her. She has been one of Megan's favorite teachers and is a wonderful precious lady!! Thursday Megan rode my bus in the morning, got off with all the other Duncan Elem. kids (looking a bit out of place with the size difference) and headed off to work! I only checked in once via e-mail and Mrs. Freeman said "Miss Watson was having a great day, the kids were loving her and they were sitting at Miss Watson's desk with her." When Meg got home that night she gave me minute by minute details and had a blast. She did say she was called Miss Watson all day and it was weird!!


A Team member....or Not?

Wed. Megan went to softball practice/try outs...yes, they had started a 1 1/2 weeks earlier and still did not know who made the team. We had a parent meeting Mon. night where all rules, regulations and ordering was gone over. We were told to order which items the girls needed/wanted and if they were cut we would get our checks back. I thought "Ok, let the girl believe she's a part of a team and then yank the rug out from under her!" I wasn't a happy mom for the next 2 days. Back to Wed., Megan was not too happy that the final list was going to be posted at school Thurs. because she wasn't going to be there...will get to that later. At the end of prac. Coach Christmas gathered all the girls together and passed out small pieces of paper. Meg is looking, realizes it's a receipt...for the sweatsuit we ordered and then it kicked in for all the girls at once because they all started yelling, jumping around & hugging each other....THEY MADE THE TEAM!! Megan is now a Byrnes High Rebel softball player.  So, here we go down this road for a second time!

Another weekly update 2-8 through 2-12-10

An American Idol Family
I'm thinking I may need to change the name of our blog from Daily View to Weekly View. Things are already busy and with spring coming I'm sure it will be getting even more so.  We've been enjoying the new season of American Idol. We used to just watch the first few weeks to see the people who really thought they could sing....but can't! Last year we watched the whole season, even though Danny did not win and we are hooked now and is family time!  We haven't picked out who we each are pulling for yet. Will let you know as soon as we do!!

Monday, February 8, 2010

A weeks worth 2-1-10 thru 2-7-10

Things have been very busy this past week and that is the reason for no "daily" blog updates.  Megan has been working hard at try outs for the Byrnes Rebels Softball C-Team every day last week. She leaves school at 2:50, has to be at the fields by 3:25 and practice till 6-6:30pm.  Last Friday they had 1st cuts and she MADE the cut! We have a parent meeting tonight, so I'm hoping they will let them (us) know who made the team. I believe it's been harder on me than her...LOL!
Thurs. was Eddie's birthday and Friday was mine. We celebrated by picking up Zaxby's, thanks to my secret pal at school leaving me a gift certificate! We LOVE Zax's!! And not having to cook on my b-day was all the present I needed! But, Sat. Becky and Vanoy had the siblings and sibling-in-laws over for an awesome dinner!! We started off with h'orduvers at 4pm, chiling out just spending time together, then salads and the BIGGEST steaks I've ever seen, grilled on the grill by Vanoy...done to perfection! We were so stuffed we had to take dessert; homemade coconut cake and cheesecake, home. What a great way to spend our birthdays. Thank you to all who sent cards!
Sunday was of course, Super Bowl Sunday. For the past few years the Girl Scouts of Spartanburg have gathered at Paradise Lanes for our Souper Bowl.  We collect food for the local food banks and get to bowl a few games. Although only 4 of the girls were able to make it we had a blast...especially watching Ashley trying to bowl! That was worth it all! After bowling Megan and I hit WalMart for her to spend a gift card and boy she found some GREAT clearance items...way to go girl. Came home to fix up fries, chicken strips and buffalo chicken to watch the Super Bowl game. We all lasted till half time and then we started falling off....into bed. All in all it's been a great week & weekend. Hopefully I will be able to get to the blog a bit more frequent this week. Have a great Monday everyone!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

End of Doodling pt. 3 1-31-10

We're almost done with the doodling walls! After a coat of Kilz Premium Primer which didn't touch the markers on the walls Meg picked a dark color to paint her bedroom. It looks kind of blue in the pictures, but it is actually "Barney Purple". It took us two days, but we got it covered. Her room is pretty much done, except Taylor is going to paint Megan's name artistically on the wall for her and new curtains and this room will be in the complete file...for now!

Sledding at 44 yrs.??? 1-30-10

So, this is what happens when you decide to go sledding with your kids...I took pictures for about 1/2 hr. and then the kids convinced me to go down too. I grabbed one of the roasting pans (yes, we don't have sleds...use what ever is available) and headed down. It took 3 secs. before I was heading down backwards. The driveway was complete ice and so was the parking lot at the end of the driveway. I spun around a few times and screaming at the top of my lungs. Then it happened...I hit the ditch and flipped backwards INTO the ditch. It was so funny that I think we all almost peed ourselves! To be honest, it was a blast and I went down again. This time I was facing forward when I got to the ditch and was able to get my boots dug into the ground...but still flipped forward into the ditch again. That was it for my sledding adventures, I will stick to be photographer! But we have some funny memories from that day.

Friday, January 29, 2010

It's Snowing?? 1-29-10

This is what is closing down everything in Upstate SC!! LOL I guess growing up in Ohio makes this all the more laughable to me. Even after living in SC for 21 years it still gets me how frantic everyone gets. Yes, I know we don't have all the equipment they have up North, but still.....  And why does the day it's suppose to snow/sleet happen on the day I have to go grocery shopping anyway?? Then I'm at the grocery store with all these other fanatics who are rushing in to get their gallon of milk and loaf bread.  Another question...it's suppose to storm why does everyone stock up on bread and milk?? If I'm going to be stranded in the house for a few days I'm not gonna want milk and bread to eat...stock up on the chocolate and cookies!! The picture is of Megan and Taylor with their besties...Becca and Taylor ("LT" little Taylor) showing how much snow we got in about 15 mins. and now it has stopped...who knows what will be on the ground in the morning.  **Note the flip flops on Taylor's feet....she wears them ALL year long!!**

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Thursday's pie 1-27-10

It's the simple things in life that you do for your family that makes them happy! Homemade apple pie for all.
Enjoy.
Happy Birthday to my Daddy!!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

One more week of wrestling

With Camren qualifying for state today we have one more week of wrestling season...state on Saturday in Lexington, SC. Camren said he will be happy for the season to be over so her could have his Saturdays back for hunting! Gotta love those good ole boys from South Carolina!!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Wordless Wed. 1-20-10


No More Scary Movies!! 1-18-10



Sometime during the night Megan came running into our room having had a nightmare, Eddie said she was shaking when she got into bed. I had to get up and let Izzy out since Megan had woken her up. I went into Meg's room to turn off her radio and there on top of her tv was her quilt.  The next morning I asked her what her nighmare was about & why the quilt was on her tv. She said she was seeing scary faces in the tv and there was a girl with long stringy hair standing by her bed. No more scary movies for awhile!!


Mommy/daughter Date


It was nice to spend some time off with Megan. On a whim we decided to go to the movies and we were in the mood for a light fun movie...Cloudy with a chance of Meat Balls. It was a sweet cute movie, even for us older ones. The best part was for 2 tickets, 2 drinks and a large popcorn it only cost us $11.00!! You don't hear of that very often!!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Relay For Life ~ Spartanburg Style 1-16-10


Tonight was the kick off for Relay for Life 2010 for Spartanburg County. The 4 of us; Mignon, Gina, Anne and I went for a fun evening of food, music and awards for last year. Some of the big announcements were: Spartanburg County was # 2 in the nation in for fundraising, which = out to $2.72 per capita!! That is amazing to consider we were up against all the big cities in the country! And once again I'm so proud to be an employee of District 5 schools...$101,875!! Byrnes High raised $26,749 amazing! Berry Shoals in just 3 months of fund raising-$20,299, imagine if we had had the whole year to raise! I'm looking forward to another great year of "Bee Cause We Care" relaying!!  So stop by, join the team or make a donation...just find my name and click on it. 

Friday 1-15-10 Concussion


con⋅cus⋅sion  /kÉ™nˈkʌʃən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kuhn-kuhsh-uhn] Show IPA
\–noun 1. Pathology. injury to the brain or spinal cord due to jarring from a blow, fall, or the like.
2. shock caused by the impact of a collision, blow, etc.
3. the act of violently shaking or jarring.


Well...with both of our girls very involved in sports you would have thought we would have experienced this earlier. Thursday when I picked up Megan from softball weight training she got in the car complaining, but jokingly, about falling in the weight room. The coach was there talking to me & I jokingly said, "You're not suppose to let your coach know how clumsy you are!" On our drive home Meg started crying saying her head really did hurt. She had gotten tangled in the rubberbands and fell, hitting her head on the weight pole. Worrying that it might be seen as whining she didn't go to a coach...she won't do that again! We got home, shower, food & some meds. she still was hurting. Having grown up in an athetic family & having brothers & nephews with numerous concussions I knew she had to rest and not sleep for some time. Well, we didn't have to worry about her going to sleep! She had been talking to Camren (BF) & daddy and they had mentioned the worse case senerio...death in your sleep. Well...she was terrified to go to sleep! She went to lay down in her bed & texted her sister for her "to come home ASAP, she needed her Sissy!" Taylor has no idea what was going on! Once she got home & they talked we convinced Meg to sleep in my bed~this way I could keep an eye on her throughout the night. Poor dad had to sleep back in Meg's room. She tossed & turned all night,still had a small headache in the AM, so we took the day off. The things we will do for a 4-day weekend. The precious part of the story was Meg & I were getting texts throughout the day from Meg's friends checking on her. Some how her mild concussion had turned into "Megan is in a coma!!" They had girls just crying at school! Meg did say her friends were sensitive and a bit dramatic...LOL. She's fine now, even having a friend spend the night. Fingers crossed we don't experience any more!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Cookies For Soldiers 1-14-10


Cookies For Soldiers

The Girl Scouts of South Carolina-Mountains to Midlands, Inc. has a partnership with the Blue Star Mothers of the Upstate and Midlands. The Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc. is a non-partisan, non-political, and non-profit organization comprised of mothers who have, or have had, children serving in the military.


What is Cookies for Soldiers? This Gift of Sharing project is a community service project and leadership experience that allows girls to Discover, Connect and Take Action! Through personal interaction girls gain key leadership experiences while developing the skills of courage, confidence, and character. This inspiring project has brightened the faces and lifted the spirits of men and women serving our country. The Girl Scouts of South Carolina-Mountains to Midlands are honored to make the world a better place by helping in such a meaningful way.

Wordless Wed. 1-13-10

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Western Day



This one is for you Michelle! Western Day is always a fun...long day at Berry Shoals. All 3 halls of 5th graders are involved in activities that would have occured back in the olden days of Western Expansion. We all dress up & hope the kids do too. We have them participate in the process of corn going from the husk to corn meal, learn how to square dance, listen to a true bluegrass band, see real archives from the day, make butter, eat some western snacks (beef jerky and apple juice), took pictures,worked on quilts, played old timey games and watch Pecos Bill. I believe it's a day us teachers look forward to as much as the kids do! Watch for pictures from our journey through Ellis Island soon!!

Mon. 1-11-10 Daddy and his girl


Eddie is living in a sea of pink....all girls, even the dog. We tease Eddie telling him that Izzy is his favorite daughter. Everynight he sits on the couch and just rubs on her and she just falls over on him. He even sings to her...Michael Jackson's "I'll be There" is their song! Don't ask when the last time was that he sang to the girls or me!! Izzy just celebrated her 5th birthday in December and I do believe she is the best Christmas present we ever got Eddie.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Saturday 1-9-10 BHS Wrestling Invitational



Saturday morning started AND ended at Byrnes high School. Megan and Cameron have been "dating" for just over a month now and he had a wrestling tournament Saturday. Now having grown up in a wrestling household & cheerleading for wrestling I knew tourney's last a good bit of the day....but 11 HOURS?? There was over 700 wrestlers. We weren't ever sure when Cam was going to be wrestling & neither did the guys till they were up in another match or two. For that fact we didn't want to leave to go home (5 mins. down the road)...just in case. What made it so bad was he pinned both his guys in less than 30 secs.!! Then pinned in the 3rd match left him to wrestle in consolation round. Well, at 8:30 pm (we got there at 9am) they decided since the championship rounds were taking longer than expecte they just weren't going to do the consolation rounds!! That would have been nice to have known that 4 hrs. earlier when Cam's last match ended! All in all we did have a pretty good afternoon (day)!

Friday 1-8-10 Friends gotta love 'em



Taylor's best friend loves "tagging" cars and tends to tag Tay's car quiet often. Give her a day or two after Taylor cleans the window & Becca leaves another loving message! Friends...ya gotta love 'em.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Thurs. 1-7-10


Megan has softball conditioning every Tues. and Thurs. afterschool until try outs in Feb. This of course isn't a picture of Megan at the high school conditioning, because how humiliating would it be for me to be at the school taking pictures?? Even though almost all the girls there know me and know that my camera is always with me. This was taken during christmas break, throwing with Beka. The girls workout for strength, speed and agility...no softbal drills till tryouts. Megan decided that IF she doesn't make the team she will go over and try out for the soccer team...such determination! Good luck Megan....

Wordless Wed.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

"It's Tough Being a Woman"




This is the new Bible study our women at church are doing. It's Beth Moore and I am SOO excited...one because I LOVE Beth Moore, two I want to see how God is going to stretch me this year and three it means Girl Time ~ even if it's only 2 hrs. a week it's still Girl Time! I'm anxious to meet some of the newer women at church that are in my group and also get to refresh some old friendships. I'm sure I will be sharing along the way, but right now I have to go do my homework!! Praise God & Him all the glory!

Pt. 2 of The End of Doodling 1-4-10













This is the results of a few hours of Eddie and Megan painting a whole gallon of Premier Kilz Primer on Megan's bedroom walls. When they started she had blue walls w/ graffiti and when done priming she had white walls w/ primer!! Guess we can chalk it up to an afternoon of daddy-daughter bonding. Next step....plum walls with pink accents..we'll keep you updated on this project.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

The end of Doodling




For past few years we've allowed Megan & her friends doodle on her bedroom walls. It was neat to see their artwork and writings. Now that Meg has turned 13 she is ready for a change. She's busy taking down posters & pictures and getting ready to prime the walls tomorrow. It will be neat to show these pictures to her kids when they write on the walls & get in trouble....as she did when she was a wee one!

Starting the New Year off with many laughs

Great friends of ours; the Scott's had 4 tickets to see Jeff Dunham (world reknown comedian). Two ended up having to do high school basketball, which enabled Megan and myself to go with Beka and Sandi. Well, Sandi became sick and wasn't able to go, so I had the pleasure of taking 3 teens to the BiLo Center to see Jeff & his family of puppets.  The 4 of us laughed SO hard it hurt. We had a great time, even driving home in the sleet! Thank you to the Scotts!!


Haley, Taylor and Becca met as 3rd & 4th graders as they stepped on the softball field to play for the Orioles. Here as 11th & 12th graders they are as close as ever. When Taylor introduces Haley she tells them she is her little sister. My wish for them is when August comes and they go their seperate ways that they stay as close as they are now.

Happy New Year ~ 2010

My New Year Resolution for 2010 is to keep up with my new blog~A Daily View. My intentions is to take an everyday picture and journal something about it. Our scrapbook loop has motivated me to get my butt back into scrapbooking. Well, with my scrapbook room becoming a storage room and my busy schedule doesn't really leave me much time to sit down and scrapbook, so I guess this will be the best I can do for now. So enjoy a daily view into our lives.