Dirt Cheap, My New Phone and Great Aunt Inez

So while we were in the great Mississippi Gulf Coast a cousin decided we should take a trip to the Dirt Cheap store, and there are several in the area. I admit I was curious after hearing her deals and steals. Basically this place buys seasonal and discontinued merchandise from retailers such as the big Bull's Eye Store. The items are new but there is much digging and searching required to really find the "best" deals.

 Well, the name says it all right? I can appreciate the sign, but why use a farm theme to represent the idea of super cheap items?I think a picture of our Senators should be up there! LOL

 Yes, there were dressing rooms with barn looking doors....or maybe these were supposed to be stalls? I actually could use these here for real animals!

 You can see shelves crammed with items for low prices, some were 90% off retail which is a great deal no matter how you look at it!

 The Halloween items were intriguing. Here is a marshmallow head in a jar. YUMMY! I did not spend $3 on it, but I am sure the kids would have loved it.

 I DID buy this wooden kitchen play set for 50% off. The box had never been opened and it was what I had been looking for the last few weeks. Since there is not an IKEA close by I thought this would be perfect. Turns out that the little kids love, love, love it and it has helped us with school lessons this week to have the little ones occupied.

I also got Zeb some overalls for $2 and 3 packs of birthday wrapping paper for .25 each. Now all I have to do is not lose the paper, as I am famous for misplacing those types of things.


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Within a couple of blocks from our rental house there was a splash pad playground. The kids enjoyed it, especially Zeb.

 This water contraption was too tempting for Devin so he grabbed me and held me under the water fall....TWICE! He was very happy, as I was in all clothes, and the children laughed too. My phone, however glitches now so I am demanding a new one this fall. Okay, maybe it was glitchy BEFORE the water assault, but I will milk it for all I can.

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Aunt Inez is a HUGE reason we love to visit the Gulf Coast. She is 97 this month and the one sibling left out of 11. My grandma died a year ago May and left Inez the sole survivor.

This is me and Aunt Inez with my mom and Aunt Bev. We enjoyed visiting her so much this year. Fact: When Aunt Inez was born 97 years ago she was born pre-maturely. She was a "7 month" baby and weighed just over 3 and 1/2 pounds. Her grandmother put her in a  shoebox to sleep. Amazing that she survived! She is amazing all around and I hope and pray I am as lucid and sharp minded as her when I am her age.

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Our beach house rental had some really nice trees and a relaxing front porch.

 Live oaks are the best climbing trees and my mom and I urged Journee to climb it high! Many of these beautiful trees were destroyed by Katrina but the surviving ones are SLOWLY growing again.

 My mom's dog Dolly spent many hours treeing squirrels and hoping some would fall from a tree.

Fletcher is still teething but enjoyed the wet breezy air on the porch as much as I did.

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You know I live here in the Bible Belt. I know this because when you meet people they immediately ask you where you attend church AND you see signs in front of churches such as this one we down in Alabama.

 That sign cracks me up! Makes you want to attend Sunday worship there, doesn't it?   NOT!!!!!

This week has been busy with school and un packing and trying to get our routine back in shape. It has cooled down a bit too so I am making Potato Soup tomorrow and electing Indiana to make an Oatmeal cake for dessert. I just might share the family recipe too!
Here's hoping your Friday is a groovy one!
 

Stormin' the Gulf Coast

Labor day weekend is officially a vacation weekend for us. We spend a week cleaning the house and packing our clothes and groceries so that we can load up the family van and cruise down farther south to Mississippi. It's always a great trip because we rent a large house or condo and visit family. We also celebrate the birthday of my Great Aunt Inez, this year she turned 97.
Unless you live in a cave, you most likely heard that there was a tropical depression on the gulf coast followed by a tropical storm.

 Tropical Depression 13 had some fierce winds, that's for sure.

But we had a great time anyway. A little rain and wind can't scare us off!

We spent the 5 days at the beach and splash park while spending one day at the official reunion/party. The boys were super-duper well behaved.

Okay, Fletcher was really good unless someone besides me or his grandma tried to hold him. That is one pitiful display! Cousin J.D. wanted to be friends and Fletcher totally protested the offer.

Zeb was really well behaved unless someone tried to take his picture. The only way to snap a decent shot of him was to sneak around and stalk him like I was a photographer for TMZ sneaking around to snap a photo of Brad Pitt. Yes, I do have quite the imagination.

The great aspect of being on the coast during a storm is not only do you get to experience fierce, scary winds combined with tons of water and thunder BUT you also get the opportunity to find some treasures that wash up shore.

 Okay, so lots of trash washes up too. It's not only sad that the oceans are so polluted, but I find myself amazed this light bulb was still intact.

 This bird skull might not excite ya'll but my kids thought it was pretty darn cool.

 A coconut with little clams all over it was interesting.......smelly too. I wonder how long it had been floating around the gulf.

 Mississippi might not have fancy sea shells, but some were pretty. I think the kids brought home a kazillion of them. In fact our first math lesson could e to count them all!

 This driftwood was a treasure for me! Devin found it and it is all hollowed out in the center.

These large lures were pretty cool and I am sure we will make something with them. Something real classy for sure:-)

 There were some breaks in the rain and the air was still warm so we enjoyed walking the beach. I will close with a few pictures and promise that next time I will tell you about "Dirt Cheap" and why I will be soon be getting a new cell phone. More stories from the Gulf Coast vacation. Have a groovy week!

Screaming Fits

It has been one of those weeks, and yes I realize we still have another day left !
We start school in 10 days and I have tons to get done around the house. I haven't even written out any "plans" for my two big girls so that they have syllabus to follow. I have  a lot to do still.


I also have a deep freezer to defrost and clean thanks to my toddler boy who dumped melted ice cream all over the inside. I can't even describe the mess in that freezer. (sigh)

The real kicker around here though is this guy...

 He has been running a low fever and cries, oh how he cries. I feel two top teeth pushing through...poor guy. poor me as well..my legs ache from holding him and carrying him so much. If I set him down he will cry and scream. If I pick him up....

 He pops that finger in his mouth and chews.

 What did I say? Teething some ferocious teeth!

 Again, I put him down so I could peel some carrots and give my hip a break....

 He rubs his eyes......

 Wait for it..............

He's down. He has learned to throw a fit this week. Screaming fit, no less!

Gosh, what do I do when I ache all over and function on less than 4 hours of sleep a night? What do I do when there are projects and chores all over begging to get done and I have the school start date looming over my head. How will I get ANYTHING done when I am having difficulty just getting a good meal on the table? Oh, I have been here before. With 7 kids I have had my share of bad baby teething, throwing a fit, nothing will help but constant nursing days. Here's how I do it:

Do what's next. That's it. I Just do the next thing that MUST get done. Tonight it was dinner.

 Homemade chicken noodle soup. It was delicious too. So there is my advice for the weekend...especially to myself. This sweet baby will not be fussy and needy forever, so in the meantime everything gets put to the side until they MUST be done. Now that the night is here and teeth have been brushed, there will be bedtimes and then I have a date with Tom Selleck. Okay, I really have a movie with him in it and I intend to watch it tonight and give my body a break from lugging around my baby samurai for a bit.
Ibuprofen for my legs and hips....CHECK!
Soft couch with pillows....CHECK!
Redbox rental with Tom Selleck......CHECK!
Icecream with cherries and chocolate..........DOUBLE CHECK!

If I am not back before the weekend....enjoy yours! I will see you next week with happy pictures of my baby and his new teeth!!!

Grounded

Grounded, as in I really, really need to get this place and my bootie organized. Seriously! We start school in 2 weeks and once that begins all bets are off!

Yep, we have been in the pool. We have also been lounging beside the pool.

 Okay, it's not fancy but it holds everyone until we have a deck next year. The hens are hanging around for one reason and it's not because they love us so much.

 We have a few snacks to munch on between swim sessions.

 Some among us are intensely reading school books already (yay!).

 Others are trying to soak in extra sun and sleep. (Wish that were me!)

Some of us are just plain weird.

Speaking of weird, I cleaned up my bee hive equipment and in the process came across some stored hive bodies that were housing some wax moths. That's NEVER a good thing.
 I will have to burn and destroy the frames, but I decided to first lay them out near the burning barrel so the hens could feast on larva and moths. The bees got to rob the frames of what honey was left.

 The bees cleaned off the frames of honey in a couple of hours.

 This is wax moth webbing and waste and larva.........NASTY!

The hens had a great, protein enriched meal.

Finally, today we had a day at home so I could catch up on laundry. I plan to spend this week sewing and catching up on unfinished projects. I cannot sew in a house with laundry piled up everywhere. It's a crazy personality trait I have. At any rate, my laundry is caught up, or as caught up as it will ever be with 7 children.

Fletcher was a fussy baby today, I blame his teeth. There was one person who made the boy happy though....

Grandma played with him out on the front porch this evening and he was soooo happy. She also held him for me so i could try and snap a few shots of my hummingbirds. The birds are very difficult to snap a good shot of but it was a fun challenge! I will leave you with those pictures and wish you a fun and happy week! Enjoy these last few days of summer!