Welcome To Tennessee...

where it's a FRIDGED 98 degrees, which, obviously for those of us used to 110 degree weather, requires a stocking cap and knee high socks.

But just in case it warms up, we like to be prepared with shorts and a tank top!

I love you Travis, you make me laugh!

Who Wears Short Skirts?

Not us!

I have just spent the better part of my morning transforming a skirt that I bought at JCPenney for Cheyenne. She was in depserate need of some jean skirts and when I went shopping, all I could find were mini-skirts.

What mother in her right mind would let her little girl walk around in a skirt 3 inches or more above her knee?

Not this one, that's for sure. I actually had fun trying to figure out something creative to do with this skirt with the pleats. It was a little more of a challenge than the straight one.

I love the pink/brown and blue-green/brown combinations.

Now, to get on with the rest of my day.

Laundry, ironing, mowing, piano lessons, grocery shopping, etc., etc..

WHY AM I SITTING HERE?? LOL

So long y'all.

Camping Pictures 7/08

I hope you enjoy the pictures. There's really not much to tell. We ate, we rode, we ate, we rode, we ate and we rode! It was a blast. In order for us to be able to do all the eating, of course someone had to cook. Not my favorite chore, but when you get tired of waiting on everyone, you just jump in and start doing something. We did have a fun time, though I'm glad it's over. Now I'm ready for a REAL vacation. To. The. BEACH! Those pictures to come, but in the mean time...

Eat your hearts out ladies!

Oh how I wish we had stayed here.

Yep, that's me with, not one, but TWO kids riding with me. Oh the joy!
Excuse the blur.

We all got eaten up by all the bugs.



And this little guy, thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Because I Don't Have Enough To Do

I have started a new hobby!!

With as much as I have going these days, it's actually a nice break. I actually get to sit down and be productive at the same time!! And try out a little bit of my "creativity".

And I use the term "creativity" very loosely.

So, take a look and tell me what you think.

Cheyenne is loving having new 'pretties' and I am having lots of fun with it.

I just love these colors together. And the stripes and polka dots make it really fun and cute.
This is just a little bitty one, to see if I could do it.

And I think this one is my favorite. I don't know if she has anything to match it, but it was fun to make.

Ta Da!

Diets Are For The Birds!

About a month ago, my mother-in-law introduced me to this inch loss/weight loss method that she had found.

At the beginning of the year, I quit drinking any kind of caffeinated beverage. i.e. no PEPSI, iced coffee, or sweet tea. These were my main drink staples.

As a result of that, and a little bit of exercise I have lost 17 pounds. And in all honesty, I wasn't even trying. I have not changed anything that I am eating. I am not a person that can go on a diet and be consistant with it. If someone tells me I can't have potatoes, all I want is potatoes. It's a vicious mind game and if I can't win, I don't wanna play! LOL So, I challenged myself at the beginning of the year to lay off of my 'addiction'.

And it worked!!

After losing all that weight, I was/am still not happy with my body. (It's a girl thing!) I have had 3 babies and my belly just wasn't up to par.

My mother-in-law works out at Curves and the lady there introduced her to these body wraps. She then told me and I decided that I would give it a try, 'but I'm sure they won't work!!'

As it is, I was wrong!! Oh. so. wrong.

On May 13th, I wrapped my belly. My results were minimal at best, (3/4 inch) but I thought, "Well? What have I got to lose?" You know, besides allthisflab. So, 3 days later I wrapped my belly again. And since that date, I have lost a total of 10 1/2 inches around my belly (measuring in 3 places) , and just last night I wrapped my thighs for the first time and lost 3/4 inch off of each one!! Total inches lost: 12!!! I'd say that's pretty successful.

Now, mind you, this is not where I want to stop, but I am at least headed in the right direction.

As these wraps have worked for me I have been telling other people about them. My sister-in-law and I had a 'wrap party' last night. We invited people from our church and some that shop at her greenhouse. We had a total of 15 ladies here and 13 of us wrapped. The most inches lost on one lady was 8 1/4 inches around her belly!!

Here are the results of the other women:
4" - arms
1 1/2" - legs
4" - belly
1 1/2" - legs
3" - belly
2" - belly
3/4" - belly
1 3/4" - belly
2 1/2" - belly
6 3/4" - belly
1 1/2" - belly
1/2" - belly

For a grand total of 38" of fat lost in ONE NIGHT!!

And all we did was sit around and visit!! Oh, and drink plenty of water to wash out the toxins. This is not a water weight loss program. This is an actual FAT loss!! And I have personally seen the results!!

One lady came in a skirt that fit and left with it about 3 inches too big!! She was thrilled!!

Now these ladies are going to keep measuring for 3 days, because that's how long these wraps keep working. You leave them on for a minimum of 45 minutes and they keep working for 3 days!!!

If any of you have any questions about this wonderful, life-changing product, please feel free to email me or leave a comment.

I am tickled pink and my husband can't stop complimenting me on my new 'beach body'. It's a far cry from that, but it's closer than it was one month ago!! 12" closer to be exact!!

Wanna Cry?

Click on Teaser Trailer for a tear jerking, appetite whetting preview!

The Best 4 x 4 x Far

Well, amidst all the busyness and chaos that is our life right now, we have decided to add a little entertainment for the kids.

Marlene and I went out shopping for Lester's birthday last Friday and we came upon an auction lot. The people were just setting things up and getting them numbered, so we walked around and drooled. There were boats, jetskis, lawnmowers, cars, trucks, fourwheelers, motorcycles and a whole bunch of other stuff.


Well Saturday, Johnny and I took the kids to this auction and looked around at some stuff and then I went inside to go get our number to bid with. While I was in the building I heard the guy inside auction off a BRAND NEW KING SIZE mattress set for...

ONE HUNDRED AND TEN DOLLARS!!!!

I couldn't believe it.

There was a bunch of other furniture in there too, but I had to get back outside to see what was going on there and if Johnny had found anything to bid on.

As we were walking along, Cheyenne spotted a PINK four-wheeler, and fell deeply in love. That was all she could talk about the rest of the time we were there. Then we came upon a BLACK four-wheeler, which Travis had a great attraction to.

Well, long story short, we bought both of them for less than it would have cost to buy one retail. And they're both BRAND NEW!!



We brought them home and got the kids on them and they rode for 7 hours Sunday and then another 6 hours on Monday, until...



Travis wrecked into our barbed wire fence!! Talk about one. scared. mommy!! I heard him screaming and came running around the other side of the house and saw his four-wheeler tangled up in the fence with my little boy on the INSIDE of our horse pasture!

Praise the Lord!, because it could have been SO MUCH WORSE!! And with prayer and the daily application of Melaleuca Oil to his cuts, he is about 95% better.

It didn't slow him down any, though. He was up the next morning and outside with Daddy, learning how to use his breaks! LOL Then we went shopping for helmets and then came home and rode for another 5 hours!! He kept saying, "We should have bought helmets right away!" This is a true statement, but it wouldn't have prevented the accident, because he was looking behind him and didn't slow down. Now he knows to always keep his eyes in front of him and to STOP if he wants to see what's going on in the rear.

And with the help of Big Sister, Tyler even gets to have a little fun!

Something New

This summer is going to be super full for us here, so I will have even less time than I do now for posting. I will be taking the kids to swimming lessons and we are going on our annual horseback ride in July and I'm sure I will be helping Johnny some and just the everyday things that happen in life with a 6 year old, a 4 year old and a 10 month old. I'm sure you all understand.

So, for those of you who wish to read something new everyday, please feel free to visit this site, this site, this site, or this site, where these women only have one child or they have a nanny and a housekeeper to help them throughout the day.

Here, at the House'o'Hearts, it's just me, myself and I to look after three kids and cook and clean and do laundry and iron and clean out cars and wash cars and weed flowerbeds and... I think you get the picture.

So, please, by all means, take the time that you would normally spend coming to my site and go to those sites I listed above and laugh your socks off and then come back here and comment on how funny they were, cause I don't even have time to read them myself.

My Piece of Quiet

As I get older I realize how much things change.

(Now, mind you, I'm not old. I will always deny the fact that I am aging. Everyone around me is getting older, but I am continuing to stay just as young as ever. My sweet hubby just had a birthday last month in which he turned the big 3-0!! I like to tease him that he is OLD! Which makes my sister OLD too. But not me!! I'm still a baby in comparison.) Did I just tell you that my sister is THIRTY?? :P SHHHH

But anyways, back to change.

(Is it a sign of old age when you ramble??)

Anyway!

When I was at my sisters house this past fall, she and I were talking about having so many wonderful blessings that we like to sometime refer to as KIDS! In the process of this conversation, her Jordan (and I say HER Jordan as if I have one of my own and we have to keep them straight, but I don't) was listening to us talk about how it would be so nice to just take a break from the noise every now and then and recharge our batteries. A.k.a. Peace and Quiet. (Anyone out there like that?) Later on in the day he came up to her and asked "Would you like to have a piece of quiet, mom?"

Boy, what I would give for a piece of quiet sometimes. But when I really start to think about it, (in the heat of the noise and chaos that comes with having more than zero kids) I get greedy and think, "I don't just want a Piece of quiet, I WANT THE WHOLE QUIET!!!

So, I have found a way.

And this is where I get to the part about change that I started this post with!

FINALLY!!

Anybody that knows me, knows that I am not a morning person. I have told many people that I can stay up until 5 a.m. but don't ask me to get up at 5 a.m..

Not so much anymore. When 9:30 p.m. rolls around, my body starts to move really slowly and I start feeling my way down the hallway to the comfort of my Select Comfort bed where I can lay myself down and not think about anything for a full 5 hours (if I'm lucky), before I have to wake up to feed my baby. Then I get to go back to sleep for another 3 hours. Which gets me to the time that I have decided I need to start getting up so that I can get a jumpstart on my day.

I roll out of bed at 5:30 A.M.!! I then proceed to feel my way back down the hallway and out onto my front porch where I have my treadmill set up. I then walk/jog for 20-30 minutes. After that I come inside and do my devotions.

Just yesterday I was sitting on my couch, reading my Bible and I thought, ((SIGH)) here is my piece of quiet!! And I then humbly thanked my God for providing this change in my life and for making me willing and able to do it.

I used to think people were crazy to get up before 8:00!! Goodness, the sun is just barely getting up most days at that time!! (Or so I thought!) Come to find out, getting up at 5:30 has given me the chance to actually watch the sun rise and see the full beauty and awesomeness of God's creation.

I have received so many blessing (that aren't kids) from getting up early, and I now realize how much I have missed out on in the past years by staying in bed.

And it's all so worth the Piece of Quiet that I get to experience for an hour and a half!!

Thus ends this long and drawn out post!!

Aren't you glad I'm back!?! LOL

Mothzilla

I, in my astounding photographic abilities, have captured what I believe to be the BIGGEST MOTH I have ever seen!! I thought it was a tarantula, with wings and only 6 legs.

Check out his BODY!!!

And his big fuzzy antenna!!

YUCK!!