The Johnny Jumper

Introducing the best kept "keep your baby in one spot" secret! Andrew's mom gave Mason this Johnny Jumper and he seems to really enjoy it. He is still a little small for it so we have to prop him up with blankets, however, once he is snug he loves it. Let's be serious now, If you are like me, you just want to eat his little fat legs that are sticking out. After this video we learned that socks are not the best for keeping feet on the ground so in the future, they will be off :)

15 Weeks Old

Mi Casa Su Casa

All of our family from a far always asks for pictures of our home and I keep forgetting to post them. Due to the fact that Andrew and I both have full time jobs and baby Mason and everything else in life going on, I have not made time to clean the house enough to make it "my version of clean." Therefore, if you know me, I will not take pictures of an unclean house.

Have no fear, I have come up with a solution! Here are a few pictures from when we bought the house when it was listed online. Squeaky clean.

We have started a list of things that we want to do to the house so it is still a work in progress. Check back for updates.

If you are ever in town and want to stop by, just give us a ring, we have plenty of space!

Schutzhund and Andrew's Job

Everytime you meet someone, the likelihood of them asking, "What you do for a living," is about 100%. I always try and explain Andrew's job and his recreational activities to the best of my abilities but I am going to try and give a better explanation with some pictures.

First of all, Andrew works for a local company here in Southern Pines. They are a multipurpose company that specializes in various solutions to protect America and Americans against threats. Here are just a few of the things the company as a whole does:

Weapons and Tactics
Logistics
IED/Canine Procurment
Explosive Training

Andrew training the Marine handlers and trying on some night vision goggles

Andrew works with the K9 side and trains Labrador Retrievers to detect explosive devices. Once the dogs have completed their training, they are paired up with a Marine handler to go overseas and put their skills to use.

Andrew's recreational dog training is called Schutzhund and is mainly with our German Shepherd, Warden. Warden is our 3 year old GSD. Schutzhund is German for "Protection Dog." It is a sport that develops and evaluates certain traits and characteristics of a dog. There are three concentrations for the sport. These include tracking, obedience, and the most misunderstood phase is the protection portion.

Baby Warden Vs. Big Boy Warden

Warden's Courage Test for his Schutzhund 1 Title

Per United Schutzhund Clubs of America: Schutzhund is intended to demonstrate the dog's intelligence and utility. As a working trial, Schutzhund measures the dog's mental stability, endurance, structural efficiencies, ability to scent, willingness to work, courage, and trainability

During the tracking phase, Andrew has taught Warden to track the scent of crushed vegetation via walking through fields. Over the length of the track, Andrew lays "articles" for Warden to find. When Warden finds/recognizes the item, he signals to Andrew from a distance by laying down on the item.

Through out the obedience element, the dog is taught an active routine including heeling, stopping, standing, down, recalls and serveral other basic commands. Another portion of the obedience is to retreive dumbells over a one meter jump and a 6 foot wall.

Last is the protection portion which some people do not understand. The easiest way to begin to describe this part is think about police dogs or personal protection dogs. When Andrew is working Warden, he is considered the handler. The person that is working the dog is called the helper. The helper performs certain actions to get Warden to bite a sleeve or suite to prove his suitablility to the breed. This is not a real aggression and the bite is realeased on command. This is a relationship between the handler and the dog.

I always try to explain our dog situation to others, however, I think at times, people misunderstand our dogs :) Most dogs for this sport are true to the breed. German Shepherds are very loyal to their owners and at the same time fairly high drive and can be aggressive towards other dogs. Warden is just that. He is very protective over our household but just wants to lick Mason, be rubbed behind his ears and lounge on the living room floor.

New Bathroom Ideas

On March 3, 2011, Andrew and I purchased our first home in Southern Pines, NC. It is about 2800 sq ft and has some very unique features. We love the pool and the large yard, the basement and the garage are so wonderful for storage and Andrew's workout area/my sewing room. Obviously when you buy a house, there are things that you won't like and the colors of the rooms upstairs were hideous. Our bedroom and bathroom were electric blue....Now a soothing green. Mason's room was yellow and now a light baby boy blue. Well my next project is the guest bathroom which happens to be fushia pink with a huge ugly brown vanity and cabinet behind the door. I have been brainstorming on Pinterest and I think I have decided on colors and a theme. I want it to be boyish and kid friendly for Mason but I also want it to be modern/vintage for my style and to be soothing for guests. Here are the ideas and styles I have come up with :)

 The Blues and whites are my favorite. They are so soothing and go great with brown, which is my favorite color. I am a huge fan of burlap, twine and wicker baskets so I think the blue will be a great medium.

I would like to paint the vainty and cabinetry to be distressed like this dresser. I love the idea of chalkboard paint somewhere in the house, so I think I will paint the backsplash of the cabinets with it. I like the pendant lights because they are clean but not too modern.

I am also going to tile the floor probably with the help of my step dad. I visisted my local Habit for Humanity store and they have all kinds of great tiles, fixtures and so many great and cheap items for updating your home.




Stay tuned for the final project!

Pumpkin Patch

We recently visited Gross Farms in Sanford, NC for a little pumpkin patch, Fall fun. There were pumpkins of every size, shape and color....who knew that pumpkins really do grow white! We pulled Mason around in the wagon and picked out three pumpkins and they now have a resting spot on our steps at the front door. Here are just a few of the wonderful pictures we took.

Moore County Farmers Market

       

Every Thursday, vendors from near and far line the parking lot of the armory on Morganton road in Southern Pines, NC. Today when I went, I took $20.00 out of my wallet, put Mason in the baby bjorn and set out on a mission to get some fresh produce and something yummy to make for dinner. That is just what I did.......

I got tomatoes, fresh basil, apples, an eggplant, a loaf of homemade tomato and basil bread from Our Daily Bread in Carthage, NC and 4 of the most beautiful sweet potatoes ever! The best part is, that I only spent $13.00.When I got home, I made lasagna with fresh basil on top and a yummy apple crisp.

Tomorrow, I am going to make tomato, basil and mozzarella sandwiches and the eggplant parmesan for dinner.

 I love fresh and local produce, btw, you can't see it in the picture to well but I only live 10 minutes from the farmers market and the loaf of bread did not make it home with out being opened and sampled. It was delish!

The "Fine Art" of Couponing

I have so many people ask me all of the time what the secret is to saving money on my grocery bill. These days I shop pretty much exclusively at Harris Teeter and never spend more than $40 a week on groceries. I will tell you a little bit of how this couponing stuff works.
Just over a year ago, I was spending about $75-100 a week on groceries. I always went to Wal Mart because it was cheapest and I didn't really even know that there were professional couponers! I was over at a friends house and she had coupons neatly organized in an accordion folder and she told me that particular week was super double coupons at Harris Teeter. I had know idea what that meant but she explained that Harris Teeter along with a few other stores doubles ALL manufactures coupons on a daily basis up to $.99 but that particular week they were doubling coupons up to $1.50 a piece. I got all giddy and super excited and started flipping through her excess of coupons and its all history from there.
For simplicity sake, I will just refer to Harris Teeter and their policies and couponing sales. I started out with a website called Southernsavers.com. A lady named Jenny created the site to help people like you and me save tons of money. She matches up the sale ads (from all of the major Southern grocery chains as well as the major drug stores) up with any and all existing coupons for the items that are on sale.
In the beginning, you have to start buying the Sunday newspapers and going to websites such as coupons.com, smartsource.com, redplum.com, mambosprouts.com and couponnetwork.com just to name a few. At these sites, you are able to print manufacturers coupons that you can use in the grocery store. Like I said, Harris Teeter doubles all coupons (up to 20 per person per day) up to $.99. This means that a coupon worth $.75 off of milk would double to $1.50 off of milk.
Here is where it gets good. On Southern Savers Jenny will tell you all of the advertised and unadvertised sales and deals at your local stores. On top of the sale, you use your double coupons and voila!.......you save money.

Here is a good example:

• Typically Nature Valley Granola Bars are $3.89 a box
• On sale, Nature Valley Granola Bars are 2/$5.00
• On top of the sale, I have a coupon for $.75 off of one box
•                                                                                              
• Each box of bars is $2.50 minus the $.75 off coupon which doubles to $1.50 off making the box of bars $1.00 a piece......That is much better that $3.89 a box and way cheaper than Wal Marts "low prices"

The main obstacle with couponing is ONLY BUYING ITEMS THAT ARE ONE SALE & THAT YOU HAVE A COUPON FOR.

Never by items just because you have a coupon or you will find out real fast that your grocery bill will be huge.

Take a look at Harris Teeters coupon policy or which ever grocery store you plan to shop at. Lowes foods also doubles coupons everyday.

Southernsavers.com links you directly to all of the latest and greatest sales, coupons and freebies on the web. I usually check the website once a day and they also have a Facebook page which updates you will all of the wonderful things available.

Hopefully this help some of you that have asked me about my couponing!


With triple coupons I got all of this for $26.78!!!!!

Big Daddy Turns 29!!!

This weekend was Andrew's 29th birthday. It was so nice to have the family in town. We had a pool side fiesta all day on Sunday. I made Andrew Ladder Ball, which turned out to be super fun and easy and now we have a game for when people come over! I wanted to break away from the traditional snacks so with the help of my lovely ladies this is what we came up with........

 Scrabble Sugar Cookies

 Rice Crispy Treat Sushi

 Worms and Dirt

HOT Yoga

Two local friends of mine recently told me about hot yoga. I have heard several people talk about how wonderful the feeling is during and after the class. After a little research of one of our local yoga spots, I decided to go try it out. My brother and his wife went with me and it was 90 minutes of pure amazingness! The room is 100 degrees and its is Vinyasa style which means you are always flowing from one pose to the next. It's was part mental relaxation part physical high.

If you are in Southern Pines, You should try it out. 

HOT ASANA YOGA 

Sip and See

After having a traditional baby shower pre Mason's arrival, Mom and Jessica had the wonderful idea of a "shower" after Mason was born so everyone could meet him. They named it a Sip and See and started planning. Everything turned out wonderful and our family was able to mingle with friends near and far and our wonderful family at St. Paul Church in Greenville, NC.

 Mason, looking too cool for school

 All of the wonderful snacks

 Mason with Grammie

 Mason and God Mama, Auntie JJ

 Uncle Bubba and Auntie JJ

 Sully Man