Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Happy Summer!


Source - Pinterest
 Today is the first day of summer!
It's one of the greatest seasons because:
90% of the entertainment revolves around three sources of water:
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The Ocean
Source - Pinterest
The Lake
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And The Pool

The other 10% of dry land activities include
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Camping
Grilling
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 And my favorite, eating a dinner completely from our home grown garden! Nothing store-bought, no meat. Just eating the veggies that shot up out of the ground in our back yard. We got to eat the first of our sweet peas last night and they were delicious! We can't wait till everything else comes in!
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Next summer Pat and I will be getting out on the lake with little Audie. We would love to get in on some kayaking!

What are your favorite things about summer?
Happy Summer!!

Jess



Thursday, June 14, 2012

Puppy Parents!

As of this past Tuesday, Pat and I are officially dog owners! We finally found a German Short-haired Pointer breeder who will have puppies soon. We sent in a deposit to make sure we would get one from the earliest litter. We were the third ones to send one in so we should get a good pick! There are only two drawbacks:

1. We won't be able to pick the puppy out ourselves. The breeders don't have time to take pictures of every puppy and post them. They do a lot of training. We tell them the characteristics we want and from that they try to pick out one that's right for us. However, I think all the puppies will be great so that's not much of a problem.

2. The breeders are all the way in Missouri! It will be a 700 mile trip for us! We're debating on driving there or having the puppy airmailed. Right now we're thinking of taking a mini trip to go get him, it will be worth it!

Here are the parent dogs of the litter we'll be choosing from:

Jill
Jill is two years old and her due date for out litter is tomorrow!! The puppies are weened after 5 weeks. The breeders say the dams are so eager to get back out in the field they can't hardly stand it any longer than that.

Ryan
Ryan is 7 years old and has won several field trials in bird hunting. Hopefully that good nose will be passed on to our puppy!

We're wanting our puppy to look a lot like Ryan. I love the liver patches! We will be able to pick up our little Audie in the second week of August. We are so excited! I've had my eye on dog supplies for months! Here are a few of the things I would love to get our puppy:

Hey Pup sells dogs beds and two different sets of sheets you can take off and wash.

Isn't this too cute?! I may have to try and make this sometime. (Picture came from Pinterest)
I'm thinking of making him one of these DIY dog tags from Martha Stewart
I'm going to make him lots of homemade doggie treats, also from Martha

This will be good to know information from LuxeLiving
We will also keep him in mind if and when we build our house. Got some great ideas from Pottery Barn
In case you didn't notice or I haven't mentioned it yet, we have decided on a name. We didn't want a cookie cutter name and something the was rooted in Appalachia. We decided on Audie after Audie Murphy. Audie was a World War II hero and has an incredibly interesting life story. It's definitely worth a read. 

We are getting our puppy from Muddy Creek Kennels in Jasper, Missouri. They are a very reputable dog kennel and do lots of training programs for German Short-hairs. We are so excited to add another member to our small family and can't wait to bring Audie Murphy Trent home!

Jess



Monday, June 11, 2012

It Is Finished!....Almost

We finally got it done! We took out the old, block flower box that was in the front of our house. It looks so great! The flower box had gone beyond repair just within the past couple of years so if was replaced with some beautiful hydrangeas. Now that the hard part is over there are just a couple more little changes to be made. I want to put a long flower box right under our picture window and fill it with bright red geraniums and some sort of pretty draping flower. It's going to be gorgeous all together! I also want to do a bit more mulching and get some sort of liner to put at the edge of the mulch so it won't leach out into the yard. What do you think?
Before 
Getting there
Knocking out the last bit of the wall (we kept the block that had the date it was built. We're going to put it somewhere in the flower bed. Neat huh?)
So close you can taste it!
FINISHED!!
Doesn't it look great?! Please look over the block piled up in the yard. I just couldn't wait!
Didn't Patrick do such a great job? He helped me dig all the holes and mulch. There's also that little thing of him knocking out the block box and moving an actual TON of dirt! He's so dedicated to me and my flowers :)
We even had enough mulch left over to cover the side of the house. I'm just so thrilled with how everything turned out!
As promised, here are the pictures of my nieces and nephews playing on the giant water bag my Dad and I made:
Filling the bag up.
It was an instant hit!
We will defiantly be doing this again.
We just love our home :D

Jess

Friday, June 8, 2012

Pinterest Finds

You probably know by now that I'm totally addicted to Pinterest. There are so many great ideas for everything! This past week I tried TWO finds and they were awesome. I don't have pictures for the second but I'll send you to the link the original is at.
First:
Flip flop hangers!
This project cost about $4 for the hangers.
You'll need some wire cutters, pliers, and (of course) wire hangers. I got mine from the dollar store. They are coated in white plastic. First you cut the bottom of the hanger off. I saved all the bottoms because I'm pretty sure I'll be able to use them some other way.
Then you take the pliers and bend them in to hang your flip flops on. You can make them any shape you like.That's it! (I had to wear gloves to cut the hangers cause I'm weenie.)
You can bend them in anyway to fit your needs. I was even able to use them for my house-shoes and boots!

Second:
Giant Sensory Water Bag
This project cost about $3. 
Get some drop sheets (for painting) and duct tape them together. Then fill it up with water and you're done! The next time I do this I'll probably try to find some thicker plastic but the drop sheets help up great! Much longer than I ever expected them to.
Note: This is not my kid. This is from the original wedsite I got the idea from. Click HERE to visit. I did take pictures of the nieces and nephews playing on the one I made but I've been forgetting to bring my camera with me all week! I'll try to show them to you soon. This is great for a hot day. Fill it up with cold water and sock up the cool temp. without getting wet! Be sure have duct tape on hand for leaks and surprise holes.

What are some great Pinterest finds you've come across?

Jess