we have friends!

We had our first non-familial guests this weekend.. the Downies! The weather was hot.. the mosquitoes were out.. and we had lots of fun!

I was a wonderful hostess and had a spread of snack foods prepared for pregnant lady and 3-year old. And by the end of the day Miss 3-year-old Bella was in love with me! As any toddler should be.

We took the dogs down to the pond and let the true labs practice their retrieving instincts.

Marshall and Joe threw.. umm.. I don't know what they were called.. something like dummy doeys.. IDK.. my bff Jill.


And the ladies giggled and took pictures. Kim's sister Lydia was visiting and taking in all the country. She later shot a shotgun.. Go Lydia.


Sassy is not the best swimmer.. it's really sad.. and kinda funny to watch her swim. So she joined Maddie and Callie briefly.


And she came out of the water to join me. We watched the other girls swim.. poor baby.


Maddie, of course, is amazing at retrieving in the water. The girl would not stop.. we'll have to go to the pond more often.. just be cautious of rattlesnakes. Eek!

For 5 months old, Callie did pretty well. Her paws are the biggest I've seen in a while (for a puppy).. she's gonna be a big girl!


It's become quite obvious the difference between a retriever and a bird dog. Sassy wanted to show off her skills.. so she ran through tall grass and rolled around in who knows. She said, "Momma.. look what I can do.." [points at a butterfly] Good job, baby.


After much thinking, I've decided that the Downies have replaced the Bates. They dress funky. Invite themselves over to our house. And bring their rambunctious black lab to jump all over everyone. However, the Bates don't (yet) have the cutest Bella.. omg.. I could eat her up.
So we had a fun day! The dogs were worn out.. and didn't wake up til 9am.. when we got up. We got to show our house to new people. And we're making lifelong friends who will someday soon move to the Statesboro area and plant a Vineyard.

This makes my heart so warm inside. Maybe it's a baby just increasing my blood flow..

To be continued..

[Warning.. do not interpret this as us being pregnant.. there's always the possibility. We have a few days to find out, be patient with us! But my boobies are so plump and sore..]

my new friend..

We got an awesome gift from Marshall's sister and her husband. He has become my new best friend.. and I love his sucking power..

My new friend- Mr. Roomba!

Marshall and I had researched Roomba's a few months ago and I secretly swore to myself I would never purchase one. Pricey. Silly. And from watching SNL, kinda scary.

But we had no choice but to accept the pricey, silly, scary gift.

Marshall was excited the most.. read the directions on how to use it properly.. put it together.. plugged it in.. and let it do it's work..

And then he followed Mr. Roomba around everywhere..

Um, Marshall? I think the purpose of my friend is to let it go by itself.. So I thought he was silly following it around.. until..

One day I was being a dutiful housewife and collecting the masses of dog hair.. when I thought let's see what Mr. Roomba can do..

And then I realized.. Mr. Roomba is fun to follow around. This is why my 21-month old niece loves to follow Mr. Roomba. He's amazing.. he hugs the curves of the furniture and knows my dirtiest of dirty places and lights up to let me know he's found them. Eureka!


He gets stuck on my rugs, though.. so it's best to keep an eye on 'em. And he loves to knock over the picture frames leaning against the wall..

He's my new friend.

In other news.. I was pampering myself this evening and decided to put some of good ole Mary Kay's Satin Hands on.. and I stumbled on the hypothesis of my next research..

Out-dated lotion smells like elderly woman soap.

I have had numerous bottles of old lotion appear throughout my life and with each bottle the smell is the same.. stank. It can start out normal scented, cucumber melon, petunia, whatever.. but after aging several years in the back of a dark bathroom cabinet.. scent becomes stank. And it's old lady soap!

So now my face smells lovely (for now.. give it a few years) and my hands smell like a grandma.. and our inherited mahogany dresser has all of our t-shirts, socks, shorts, and undies smelling like mothballs.


Anyway.. got a cute pic of Marshall's current German Shepherd yesterday. He's a handsome boy and one of my favorite subjects to photograph..

my twins.

Okay, so they're not my twins.. but sometimes I wish they were.


A few days before I left for my mother's wedding, my Momma mentioned me maybe taking Emma home with me for a few days/weeks.. of course that got me thinking..

Quick side note: I told Mama Jean about possibly bringing home a baby for a trial period.. to see if we were ready. She said, "No.. just have them.. then you can't give them back."

Someone wants more grandchildren..

Anyways.. after much consideration, both for my sake and the welfare of Emma.. I declined. I would love to get them babies on a schedule. To wake up around the same time each morning.. have their meals spaced out so many hours.. encourage their physical and cognitive development.. change their diapers more often than they are now.. so much..

And for me take Emma.. do as much as I can with her and then hand her back to the "environment" that she's currently in might make matters worse. If that makes sense.

I love these babies and I want the best for them. It's hard for me to sit back and not get on to their parents about the soaked diapers and the future bottle mouth. Please don't scream at them just to see their pouty faces. Don't leave them unattended in the bathtub.

Part of me really wants to have custody of them..

a nice Friday afternoon wedding..

Thought I'd share a few pics of my mother's wedding. Her and.. her husband.. my step-dad.. umm.. Jim! Exchanged 2 second vows and pretty gold rings at the courthouse Friday afternoon. They had numerous witnesses.. I'm talking about a dozen. Reallly. Twelve.

They're very loved!

It was a short little ceremony. I got to walk around and take pictures.. not just butt pictures.. but of their faces!


We then went to the local pub.. and ate tons of fried food and chugged freshly brewed ale. Okay.. diet coke. Then to the reception-housewarming party.. where we ate more foods. And the green apple dip was a hit! Except I made way too much.. so Marshall you're the lucky winner. If I don't eat it on the way home tomorrow. And Dr. Moore.. you also get half a strawberry cake. And cheese-its. Would you like anything else??

I met my step-grandparents. Delightful people. Step-grandmother is a lovely sort from England. Beautiful.. thank you surgical procedures. Nice teeth.. pretty sure they're implants or veneers. She's so proper and spectacular, though! I guess she's a novelty to my country living. She and Big Jim have travelled the world. Tasted and seen everything life has to offer. France? Oh.. all the time! Africa.. jungles.. everywhere. And boy does she like wine!

Elevator pic of the wedding guests

One of my favorite books growing up was "Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself." Sally would always find these facinating people and just be enthralled by their lives. Step-grandmother is my person. Oh.. she's only 65.. but did I mention she's beautiful? She reminds me of a Diane Keaton-esque type. Can you pick her out?

Only thing is.. Big Jim mentioned something about her being an atheist.

Figures.

Anyway. Umm.. pictures!

Look like you love one another

Um. cute!?

They're so much fun together!

paint.

I enjoy painting (rooms. not abstract. or kittens). Thus far, we've painted our living room, dining room, and guest bath. Our next challenge was the master bath.

Whoever built our house, chose a lot of neutral colored tile. So.. a lot to work with. There are some accent tile, though, in the master bathroom.. with some bits of bluish/gray in them. So, Marshall and I decided a light blue would look good. Nice. Calming.

We grabbed some samples from our local Lowe's.. Marshall's favorite store.. a mix of blues and almost turquoise.

After holding each sample up to the accent tiles, I made my decision. I picked out a barely blue.. with almost a hint of gray. I didn't want to go too gray.. but just a little. The paint sample stays in the bathroom, shimmied next to the tile for a few days.. just to affirm my decision. The other samples.. just put 'em next to the bed until I threw them away.

Well.. my wonderful husband.. yesterday saw the samples and figured the one on top must be the color. Now.. don't get ahead of yourselves. He didn't go to Lowe's and get gallons of it. He decided that it went with our new bedspread and we could paint the trey ceiling in the blue. Okay.. it matched the bedspread.. but did it match the bathroom? Hmm.. it did.. we could get 1.5 rooms instead of just the bathroom... and Marshall did an excellent job picking out the most recent color for dining room and guest bath. I'll trust him on this one...

That will be the last time!

I love you, Marshall. But I did not want bright Robin's egg blue in my calm and serene garden tub bathroom. Granted, it did NOT look that bright on the sample... ugh. I would post pictures.. but I'm so embarrassed.

So.. question is: How long do I want to look at this eccentric blue? Will I go to Lowe's today? Or wait.. and let Marshall do it?

We ain't letting the paint go to waste though.. someday.. hopefully.. we'll have a baby boy. And whether he likes it or not.. he's gonna have a blue room. With blue painted furniture. And blue painted picture frames. And a blue horsey.

That reminds me.. I need to make an appointment to see the lady doctor..

whew..

It's been quite a week. No work (for me).. but the Moores have been completely busy.

Marshall's first week was.. overwhelming, a shocker.. the beginning of many long days, nights, hours. He's surviving.. I can give him that. Last weekend all he stressed about was being on call for the first week. He wasn't familiar with the schedule.. didn't know what his week was going to look like.

Poor thing. Really. Sympathize with him.. He was on call..

Monday. Wednesday. Friday. Saturday. Sunday. Of his first week.

But.. after tonight he won't be on call for another two weeks. Get it over and done with. Good job, baby!

In other news.. I haven't gotten a job. Submitted my resume to the local bank.. and will probably get some more out this week. However.. I've been super busy volunteering. As a personal assistant to my wonderful mother-in-law. She had a brunch Saturday for helpers with her Children's Music. We made a delicious spread of fruit, pies, muffins, ham, and grits casserole (that was a new one). Complete will little thank you gifts wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbon. I've been able to express my creativity a little. Yay!

Her end of the year performance is tonight.. so we'll be laughing at little girls and boys that don't want to be singing and cry. Or pick their noses. Or flash us!

So.. Sunday morning. We couldn't leave the Statesboro area because Marshall was on call. That meant.. no hour drive to Savannah for good Vineyard fun. We tried a local church (Connection Church).. and probably won't return. We received an info card from a friend who got it from another friend and decided to try it. The only thing.. there wasn't any service times listed.. so we showed up 30 minutes late when the music was ending. Then.. some lady got up and was giving the announcements and prayed a lot.. and both of us were thinking.. is SHE the pastor??

Marshall and I don't agree with female pastors. We don't hate them.. we just believe men should be the leaders in the church. So.. if she was gonna start preaching to us.. I was gonng prepare myself as Marshall would have dragged me outta there.

But.. eventually she sat down.. and a guy got up and started talking. And he lead the offering.. and he preached to us for like 15 minutes about giving yourselves and asked people to share their praises.. so we were thinking.. is HE the pastor??

So he sat down.. and another guy got up. Okay.. surely this guy is the pastor. Nope.

Just kidding. He was.. and he was pretty good. Nothing spectacular. No Kyle or Kent. He was half interesting.. but still immature. In my opinion. He had some good points.. but the verses he read and what he actually preached on didn't parallel or compliment one another very well.

Needless to say.. we're still on the search. And we definitely booked it once the service was over.

Highlight of our week- getting stuck in a ditch.. late at night.. raining.. muddy. Having 5 trucks pull over to help. Causing a traffic jam in the middle of the country. And Marshall was the driver. Missed a drive and rode right into a ditch. The girls had fun though!

In other news, I made Marshall take a trip with me to the local BigLots. Ooh- fun! I found a cute comforter for only $25. Which.. that's not much at all. Only came with 2 shams.. but hey.. $25. I could have gotten another one at that price! Marshall wasn't convinced at first. He seriously asked if we needed to check our budget first.. Really Marshall!??

So we home and I threw the older one in the wash (it's getting ready to greet visitors in our guest room as we speak).. and put some fresh sheets on our bed.. and wow. I love it. Pictures will come soon..

I then informed Marshall if ever wanted to help me spice up my life.. just get me a new comforter. Watch the sparks fly!

Let's see what pictures we have to share..


I have a hard time getting good pictures of Sassy. She always makes these ugly faces.. with her tongue hanging out. She's a pretty girl.. but not the most photogenic. I thought this was a good one.. with good coloring. You can't tell she's cross-eyed too much in this one, either. :)


Oh, Maddie Girl. This one is for Mollyanne.. Maddie truly loves being in pictures. I get the camera out. She gets in front of me. Sits down. Gets in front of Sassy. She's gotta be the center of attention.. and as much as that drives us crazy sometimes.. we love it. And she loves it, too.

As we speak, she just got up from a nap with her feet up on the wall. Going to see where Daddy Doctor went.. and they're gonna go look for Sassy. Hopefully she hasn't claimed the new bedspread as her own.

we been busy! working in the yard..

We had a great Mother's Day with Marshall's family! And hopefully Marshall had a great birthday! He's old.. 27! He says now he's considered in his late 20s. And the old man starts work tomorrow! We chatted with a neighbor today [meaning our neighbored would not stop talking long enough for there to be an awkward silence.. or any silence].. and he asked if the rumor about Marshall being a veterinarian was true. And then he goes into another 5 minute monologue about his lab that peed and pooped all over the house.. can Marshall do something about that?!?

Anyways.. Marshall and I went to Gnat's Landing for dinner yesterday. I got probably the healthiest item on the menu- Fried Green Tomato Club, complete with swiss cheese and bacon! Oh and tangy mayo. Yumm-o!

We got a lot of cleaning in Saturday afternoon. I could say we cleaned the house.. but one would think we vacuumed or did laundry.. but no, we cleaned the house.


Our vinyl siding was in desperate need of some scrubbing. I started last week using vinegar and baking soda to get the mold and mildew and pollen and whatever else had been growing on our house for the past year. Using good old-fashioned elbow grease, I was able to get.. not much done.. so we searched for alternate cleaning options via internet. Every site said not to use bleach (it kills the plants!) but use oxygen bleach.. aka OxyClean. We got generic kind.. Marshall threw it on the house like a ribbon dancer and watched it do.. NOTHING!

So.. we decided.. hmm.. bleach.. our plants are ugly/half dead anyway.. let's try it. As you can tell from the above picture.. holy smokes it worked miracles! So, if you ever need to clean your vinyl siding.. get at least 3 gallons of bleach, a pump sprayer, and a water hose. Spray bleach, let sit for a few minutes, rinse with water. Easy as can be!

Our next venture was a risky one! As you can tell, our shutters don't match. They're supposed to be burgundy.. but 4 of the 6 have faded. So, I'm really wanting to try spray painting them black. Marshall decided to take one off the house and try out the black. WARNING! Look online for instructions if you want to take off shutters. We learned... well, Marshall learned the hard way.

He's prying and pulling, trying to figure out how the shutters come off.. when all of sudden he starts screaming and running around like a chicken with his head cut off...

Okay, maybe he wasn't that dramatic. But.. he did scream. I think.

So, he got stung by a wasp. On the tip of his ring finger. So we retire from our shutter prying and decided to check online..

First website had GREAT advice on how to remove shutters. We should have checked there first. Great step by step details.. starting with..

Step 1: Check for wasps. Be cautious!

We got a good laugh. Marshall is still complaining about his poor little finger. Whah.

Aren't we so cute! We coordinated our outfits unintentionally. We had to dress up to go to church with Marshall's Mama. Highlight from service- before singing "How Great is Our God" (Chris Tomlin) the music minister informs the congregation that the song might be a new one for some.. oh Baptist churches.

surprise!

The other day I was anticipating this summer's abundant fruit supply.. well.. Marshall walked in this afternoon with a handful of the tartest blackberries.. from our backyard.

Oh delicious berries.. how scrumptious you would be in a tart.. mmm.

Or on top of ice cream..

produce.. reproduce

Two posts in ONE day.. you are quite lucky, my friend!

It's been a dreary, stormy day in Brooklet. That means.. we didn't have to work in the yard! Instead, we worked on laundry and cleaning the garage.. and christened our master bath with a lovely late afternoon soak and other friendliness.

I did ruin myself today. My dear friend, Erika, cautioned me from reading about Pioneer Woman.

But do I listen? Do I ever listen? Well, I made it a week and a half.. but I gave in. Darn you, Satan.. I mean Erika. :)

There's another blog that I stalked briefly prior to "the move"... here. Her stuff is too cute. Makes me wish I was more creative. Also makes me want a super nice camera. Hopefully within in the next year or so I can get a Canon Rebel.. with a nice lens.

SO.. the point of this post was to express my interest in the upcoming summer in the deep South. Why, you ask? Well, the joys of living in the country and having plenty of land (well, family land..) means that we'll have FREE blackberries and blueberries. Maybe even lemons.. and watermelon. And aren't you jealous?!

Right now, I'd love some blueberries. I would make an amazing blueberry cheesecake.. or cobbler.. or muffins. Pancakes are pretty wonderful, too.

But I can't. We ran out of last season's supply months ago. This summer I'm stocking up. If people come visit they can go to the Moore Blueberry Farm.. for a small fee.

And at this very moment in my life, my husband (who just became a doctor) is asking if he can use evaporated milk for cereal.. oh you..

Dr. Moore

Marshall's graduation went well.. except for pictures. My camera was in the middle of dying. We got a few pics in, but of course someone wouldn't cooperate.. figure out who it is..












































I love looking at people in the backgrounds of pictures. We've got the guy second from the left.. I can't believe they're letting HIM graduate..

The guy to the right of him is totally looking at me.. weird.

The end..