California Dreaming

Mrs. Brown celebrated her 80th birthday the same day as my birthday. We decided to celebrate big by taking her to California Dreaming. She is such a sweetheart to be around and such a happy person. I can only aspire to be like her when I'm a senior citizen! :)

On the bus with our hats on getting ready to celebrate!




Here is the Birthday Queen!

Getting settled at California Dreaming.



Opening presents.







Preacher was able to join us in celebration.

These are the flowers I gave Mrs. Brown.

The seniors were very thoughtful and brought presents for me too!


Mrs. Brown's cake.

Getting ready to blow out a candle.

Waiting on cake.

Dishing it out. We had chocolate and mom made me a pineapple orange cake. It was super yummy!

Seniors on the Go group pic.

I wish Mrs. Brown a wonderful and healthy year!

Tea Plantation

Okay, so we all know that summer is super busy. Even though I don't have kids, somehow my summer still speeds up. Since I'm struggling to keep up with reading my blogs, I'm sure many of my readers are too! But if I don't document some of these, they won't get into my book at the end of the year. :)
Last month, we took our senior citizens' group to the American Tea Plantation. A great time was had by all! I was just enjoying having Greg home. We have several pics and took advantage of the lovely scenery.

All on the bus working on word finds as we travel to the plantation.

We finally arrive!

Mr. and Mrs. Holliday- isn't her hat gorgeous?!?

Mr. and Mrs. Holley

Greg and I

Welcome to American Tea Plantation. This is the whole group that went that day.

Relaxing on the rocking chairs as we wait for our tour.



Our tea product tour. We smelled each brew and tried a couple of them.



Shopping in the tea shop.


A world map of tea plantations.

Heading to the trolley for our plantation tour.

All Aboard! Mr. Holliday ushers us on.


My in-laws were able to drive up and join us.

Everyone on the trolley.






A view of the tea growing on the plantation.


The Rolls Royce Club was there and having a mini car show. Mark had to get a pic with his favorite.

We then had a picnic together.



After lunch, Greg, Mark and I walked over to take some pictures. This is me and Mark being typical siblings.



Greg and I in front of "America's only" tea gathering machine.

This is a sign with the closest other tea plantations.

I love bridge pictures!





We had a great time!

New Car

Happy Birthday, Anniversary, and Merry Christmas to my wonderful hubby! We finally found him a Ford to replace his Grand Am. I think my family finally considers him part of the family now! lol :)

This is the beauty that we bought. And yes, it's his car. I love it a lot, but he was the one we were buying it for. We drove up to Charleston last weekend to get it.
It's a 2005 Ford Mustang in Metallic Mint Green.





I'm so excited! Greg even lets me drive it! Speed Demon and all! lol :)

On a side note, this is my 100th post. What an exciting life!

Birthday

Today is my 25th birthday! I was so spoiled this year. :) My wonderful husband decided to give me a spa day since I loved my anniversary day so much. I got my hair trimmed up, a mani/pedi and a couples massage. It was wonderful!
Then I got a how to book for my camera. I hope this will help me understand how to manually use my camera. My camera works really well on automatic, but I want to expand my knowledge.

Greg also bought me Corel Paint Shop Pro for my photo editing. I'm not even close to figuring out all the elements in this program! But there are a lot of wonderful things to do with pics in it.


My parents totally surprised me with this for my birthday! They said they didn't want me to forget that, even though I live in Georgia, I'm still a Carolina girl!

A beautiful Palmetto pendant and dangle earrings.

A gorgeous bangle bracelet.


I was so excited that my hubby could be home for my birthday this year. I got to spend the day with my little family! The boys got me birthday cards. Greg brought home the stuff to make strawberry pies. And I made a birthday cake. I haven't made a cake in forever! And I love baking. It's just not good for our waist lines. :P
My birthday cake

Me and my boys

My Melbourne and I

My Montgomery and I

My Greg and I :)

My wonderful, fantastic family that I am so blessed to have.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears...Oh My!

Going to Busch Gardens and the zoo are two of the greatest joys in my life! I absolutely looooove animals! It's a passion that I will one day work with. But for now, I am content being a military wife. If you haven't been to Busch Gardens, you must go! They have the best animal enclosures and they interact with their animals during park hours. What's more...they have roller coasters there too! What's not to love?
While we were on vacation we went to Busch Gardens, Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, and parasailing in the Isle of Palms, SC. It was a fabulous mini vacation!

You know I have pictures to share! Here they are in the same sequence we experienced them. :)

First we visited the Gorillas and Monkeys at BG.



Monkey eating an apple.

Since there were a lot of kids in the monkey place, we decided to go back later for more pics. We moved on to the Flamingos! They are so tall!

Since it was springtime, there were a lot of animals getting their "spring" on. Like these two reptiles. lol

We visited the hippos. Hippos are my absolute favorite! They are so very graceful in the water and cute too! We posed with these replicas, since it was quite hard to get a pic of the real thing. There were a lot of people there!



We caught the elephants just as the trainers started working with them. I was able to get some pics of them doing tricks. So adorable!




Isn't this tiger incredible? BG did a great job with this one.


There is just something about white tigers that is magical. They're beautiful.

Look at those paws...they're huge! We were actually able to get this close. BG had a glass enclosure that you could pop your head into to look at the "baby" tigers.



Here are the elephant clones for picture taking. Greg thought they looked thirsty. lol


The magnificent Lions.



I had some fun on the roller coasters. I really love the Montu. I rode it a lot! I tried to convice Greg to try it, but he said maybe next year. :P


We finally got around to returning to the gorillas.

Mom and baby just lounging around.



Isn't he cute!?!?! I swear he looks like a toddler. I begged Greg to buy him for me and let me take him home. lol ;)


Big Daddy Gorilla


Mr. Monkey

Us at the Zoo entrance.

Rhinos!

Greg on the sky lift over the zoo.

A pic of the Kangaroo from the sky lift.

Me on the sky lift.

More Rhinos.

I can't remember what this was, but it was cute. I'll have to ask Greg.

Turtles getting cozy. :)


Greg and I on the boat in Charleston getting ready to parasail.

Up, up, and away!





The view was amazing! We were flown over the island and the beach area. We did the 800ft ride.

Here's the dip in the ocean.


Back up again!

Me on the boat with some kind of windblown hair!

What a wonderful vacation together. :)

Greece

I'm back! The last two weeks have been absolutely amazing! Greg and I have done a lot of traveling and had a lot of adventures. I'll post about them as soon as I organize the pics.

When Greg was on deployment, they had a port call in Greece. My hubby has made a habit of buying me a necklace and a set of earrings from every country he visits. This time he picked up this gorgeous set of silver. He has such good taste and I love wearing what he picks for me! So here's my pics. :)

Military BBQ

I tried to upload the flyer, but couldn't get it to work. But to all my Charleston friends, you are invited to a bbq just for military people. My home church, Trident Baptist Church, is hosting a bbq for any active or retired military personel. We'd love to have you come visit!
Here's the details:

Trident Baptist Church
100 Montague Plantation Rd
Goose Creek, SC 29445
843-569-7331

Sunday, May 17, 10am

The bbq will be after the service. I'd love to meet my bloggy friends in person. :)

Hubby's Home!

How cool is that? The Navy decided to return my wonderful hubby on Military Spouse Appreciation Day! Whoo hoo! The boys and I are thrilled to finally have him home! :)



Anyway, I'll see you guys later...much later! :)

My Deployment Project

Every time Greg goes out to sea, I work on a deployment project. This time it was painting my kitchen. It doesn't look too bad, but it's not my favorite room. The design plan kept changing because I wasn't sure what I wanted. All I knew is that I wanted a green kitchen. So without further ado...here's my pics.

The pantry and front door.

Fridge and stove.

Cabinets. I still have to replace the ceiling fan.

Sink area.

More cabinets.

Pantry and Front door.

New curtain and paint in sink area.

Ignore the tacky post its on the fridge. They are Bible verses to help me get through being alone at home. But I'll be removing them. Next time I'll use post its that match my decor! lol

A spruced up oven.

My cubby corner.

Cabinet doors. I put new knobs on it.

The doorway into the living room. That's my next project!

Strawberry picking

Our church's Seniors on the Go ministry went strawberry picking and to a bbq lunch last Saturday. We had a great time! There were a lot of strawberries and we really enjoyed the bbq. Here's some pics from our outing.

Arriving at the plantation. Mrs. Gilstrap

Ms. Bonough and Mrs. Brown

Walking to the booth and having a good time!


The Strawberry Booth

Dad and Mrs. Gussler

Mr. Gussler and Mr. Holley


Mrs. Gilstrap and Mrs. Riley

Mrs. Riley and Mrs. Bonough

Mrs. Gilstrap picking berries.

Lucious Strawberries.

Having a good time together.

Mr. Gussler and my dad.

Mrs. Brown and her berries.

Mr. Holley with his strawberries.

Mr. and Mrs. Holley and Mrs. Brown.

Mrs. Gilstrap hauling her berries onto the bus.

Mrs. Riley and her berries.

Joe Bessinger's Barbeque

Pigging out on the BBQ!


A group photo

My Adorable boys

I had the opportunity to take some adorable pics of my sweet boys. I also took some of Fuzzy, my granny's dog and Rocky D, my mom's dog. Here they are!

Here's Fuzzy

My sweet Montgomery

My cute Melbourne

Rocky D with his squeaky toy pig.


Adorable Fuzzy


Oh, Melbourne! What silly faces. :)



Montgomery...he'll be 4 next month!

Sleepy Melbourne

Gummi bear

Nosy Melbourne

Cutey pie Fuzzy

My new dress

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I thought I didn't have anything to post about, but I found several sets of pics that I've neglected to write about. So I will be catching up in the next 2 weeks.

Today's post is about my post deployment dress. I have been looking for that perfect outfit to greet my wonderful hubby in. I found this one at JCP. I actually paid $25 for a dress! I wouldn't have if it weren't a special dress. :) I am very, very excited.

Let me know what you think! Should I wear this necklace with it or something else? I also think I'm going to cut the tulle at the bottom off. It's itchy and if I'm sweating in the GA heat, it won't be comfy. What do you think?

Hoppy Easter Sonday!

Hello all! I hope you guys had a fabulous Easter. Although from what I've been reading lately, a lot of you are sick! I'm trying to stay healthy in the home stretch. It would me my luck I'd get sick the last week in SC, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
The boys got smaller easter baskets this year. With Greg gone, I guess I just wasn't in the spirit. But I did dress up, go to church, and take pictures. Daddy likes pics of the boys. I'm thinking about getting Montgomery and Melbourne shirts that say "Welcome Home, Daddy" on them. I think Greg would laugh! He's cool with me dressing the boys up as long as I stay away from the bows!
Anyway, here's the pics from yesterday. It was a lot harder to get them organized for the pics this year. Usually they will listen to Greg better. We had quite a few out takes! :)

First, we went to see my grandpa in the nursing home after church. He broke his leg a few weeks ago, so he's just waiting on it to heal and go home.



The boys checking out their baskets.

They'd rather get down and play!

Resigned the their fate.

Finally a good one!

Getting tired now.

Montgomery and Mommy

Melbourne and Mommy

I even got a pic with Fuzzy...which wasn't easy!


I hope everyone had a great holiday and a fantastic week! How did you celebrate?

Our Second Wedding Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary. My baby is still out to sea, but he sent me an email! I love his emails! That was the best present I could get right now! Despite my wonderful husband being gone, I had the best day ever! The only way it could have been better is having my husband's boat come in. :) A girl can dream, can't she?

Today I had a:


Well my day started off with sleeping in and cuddling with my boys. It was a cold night last night and they slept right next to me, keeping me warm! Then I went to get my hair cut. I got it highlighted a year and a half ago. I've been growing it out enough to just cut it out. I don't want to mess with my overall color. It's definitely short!
Here's a few before pics. In the green, my hair is mostly straight and you can see how long it was. In the black, it's styled like normal-curly.







Here's the result! I'm still getting used to it. I'll have to play with it to figure out the best style.



Then I went to the thrift store. Y'all, it was a special day...I HAD to go to the thrift store! ;) Here's what I got.

$3.99

$.99

$7.99

$2.99

$1.99


Then I went to my favorite restaurant for my favorite meal:

After finishing a fabulous meal, I went to get a massage. Ohhhhh, how relaxing. I felt like melted butter afterwards. Everyone should get a professional massage!


After that, I went to get a manicure and pedicure. I went back and forth trying to decide whether I wanted a color or a french polish. Since I could do a color myself, I went with a French mani/pedi. It's so wonderful to be pampered. :)


Ahhhh, what a wonderful, wonderful day!

Need a laugh?

I just wanted to make sure you all know about the website, I has a hotdog! It is sure to give me a laugh nearly every day! I'll share some of the pics from that great site! Go visit them, maybe even add them to your reader. They will not disappoint!