Scarecrow Trail at Huntsville Botanical Gardens

Each year for fall Huntsville Botanical  Gardens puts together ''Scarecrow Trail'' various businesses, schools, groups etc. get together and make a scarecrow for the trail. It's always fun to go to the Botanical Gardens, we go multiple times a year.

 Fall is always extra fun though, we get to see all the creativity and hard work that is put into each scarecrow. This years theme was ''traditonal''

So one day Making Connections got together to set up the Autism Awareness Scarecrow. I don't get to be as involved with the group as I would like to be, and I was off the day they were setting up so I decided to go. Debbie did a fantastic job with the design. It's hair was spray painted and it had cute little iron on puzzle pieces all over it's overalls.

It turned out to be such a cute scarecrow too! After that my friend Whitney, my daughter and I all enjoyed a lunch at Clementine's at the Gardens. Then we took a short tour around the gardens, skipping most of the different sections of the gardens. It was so hot that day, and I had to pick up my little man from school so we were rushed for time.

Whitney working on the hair.

Little Miss Sassy working on his ''stuffing''

After it was all finished

How cool is this? I love the sunflowers, they add a nice touch!

Angry Birds made out of gourds and plastic jugs.... pretty neat! 

 

 

Giant Lilly pads in the water garden.

If you've never been you really should make plans to go. Fall is the perfect time, the weather is cooler, the leaves are changing and who doesn't love scarecrows?

 

Little Gymnast

Our little princess fell in love with all the jumps, flips and pageantry of the Olympics. She is obsessed with Gabby Douglas! She begged and begged to take gymnastics so I finally went and got her registered. She absolutely loves it!

doing a roll

Jumping on the AIRTRACK

Very first time on the bar

So proud of getting her hand stamped after completing her first class

Balance Beam

 

 

This Saturday is ''Open Gym Day'' for members and they get to bring a sibling or a friend. She  is going to take her older sister Lindsey! Super excited!

Twice the fun!!!!

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a die hard fan of Ford. Especially the mustang. Back in 2006 I got a 2000 Ford Mustang coupe, V6 that is sunburst gold. We have done so much work on it that it doesn't even look like the same car. We've added decals,new headlights, rims, rear window louvers, a new Cobra R hood, dual exhaust, a GT bumper, custom leather seats and the list goes on and on. My husband and I both enjoy going to car shows and showing our cars. I've won several trophies ranging from Huntsville,  Birmingham, even Savannah,Georgia. My car has been in numerous parades throughout the Tennessee Valley. I'm proud of all the hard work, time and money that my husband and I have poured into that car.

Photo by Olivia Photography

 

Seats by Norm's Upholstery

Photo by me

 My husband decided to get rid of his F350 duley. We wanted something fun to drive around, we rarely even drove the truck. It was just sitting there wasting away. He found a 2000 Ford Mustang GT convertible on Auto Trader online. We called the dealership and told them we would be coming up on Thursday to take a look at it. We dropped our son off at school and headed to Murfreesboro, TN. Two hours later we were in the parking lot and knew we wanted the car. You can pretty much say it was ours from the moment the salesman placed the keys in our hands and said take it for a drive. We drove it, stopped and lowered the top then went back to the dealership and told them we wanted it. I'm looking forward to this being our new project. Can't wait to see the end results!

because sometimes a girl wants to go fast :)

Sitting in the driveway at our friends hows, chatting about mustangs!
 

                                                                      

Am I insane????

Last week my  lovely package that I ordered for myself arrived, aka the INSANITY workout program.
I couldn't wait until Monday to get started! So finally Monday arrives, and I wake up ready to defeat day one of the program, which was the fit test. I didn't do as bad as I thought I would. I absolutely loved it!

So today I woke up a little sore from yesterday's workout. I was still determined to start and finish day two, which happened to be plyometric cardio circuit! Turns out I was more sore than I realized. Still I put the disk in the dvd player and started. I got to the point where my legs felt like they were a thousand pounds. I pushed myself through it, and now I'm so sore I don't even want to attempt tomorrow's session. I know I will still attempt to do day three anyways. We only have sixteen days until our trip, so that's sixteen days I can be doing an ass kicking program!

I've already quit drinking sodas and junk food. It's amazing how I went from craving such bad things to such good fresh healthy things. All week I've been eating salads, and grilled meats, and drinking water. YAY me! So excited to see my results from doing this program!

''A Red Carpet Event''

A Red Carpet Event, what an awesome name for my princesses first dance recital! It was a busy day but an amazing day! I got up and got my princess dressed in one of her big brother's button up shirts. We went to see our good friend Beverly at her salon, and of course she did an amazing job on her hair!

Next up  we headed over to the civic center for her Mary-Kay make-up by Miss Carly, who also did an amazing job on her stage make-up! She looked like a little porcelain doll!

Then she was ready to go onstage for her rehearsal. She was super excited! She went backstage then I took a seat out in the audience and waited to see her rehearsal. I'll even admit that I cried, as she was the first one to walk onto the stage with her beautiful little golden curls! Such a bittersweet moment, seeing her onstage for the first time! I can remember the day she wanted to take dance classes and she was still too young. Now here we are, her first year has just been completed!



Rehearsal



They all looked so stinkin' cute dancing around in their little costumes, with  their bouncing curls! As soon as her rehearsal was over I left the concert hall and met her as she came off stage. I hugged her and told her that she did an amazing job and I was super proud of her! The first words out of her mouth were....''where are my flowers?'' hahaha!!!! I had to explain that she was only at rehearsal and that she would get her flowers later that night after her performance! So after all that we went home and relaxed until it was time to touch up her hair. Then we went back to the civic center for make-up. I left her backstage with her group and took a seat with my family! I couldn't wait until it was her turn!!!!

Opening Act

Choo Choo  Cha Boogie





My beautiful Princess Dancer



With her teacher Miss Stacey



She was so very proud of her beautiful roses!!!!



Daddy's girl!!!!




We had a fantastic time watching her performance! I can't wait until the DVD of the show arrives next month! I'm so thankful that Ann's Studio of Dance made her first year of dance a year to remember!

blah! blah! blah! blah!

I haven't been able to blog in a while, and so much has been going on.  Life seems to be out of control lately.

Between taking little man to school, and our princess to dance classes, going to the gym, being sick for to weeks, being the president of the mustang club, organizing meetings, planning a car show, trying to be a good wife,mother and step-mother I've lost myself lately. I feel like I'm overlooked, overloaded and definitely overwhelmed. It's like I just woke up one day and life  had gone from being normal to crazy.

Tomorrow I start a new job, I'm nervous about finding the right balance between being a good wife & mother, while keeping up with my responsibilities  with the mustang club and working part time. I'm excited about going back to work,  meeting new people, and  getting out of the house.

Friday night I'm going out with my friends Kathleen,Rachael,Rose, & Beatrice! AGH, a girls night out! It's well overdue and is going to be awesome! I'm so excited! It's only for a few hours and then I will be thrown back into reality. lol I will let you know how that turns out!

My daughter Vanessa has Epilepsy & her seizures are becoming more frequent. Her neurologist is sending her to Children's Hospital next Tuesday-Thursday. My husband can't take off work since we just came back from a vacation. So I plan on going to visit her while she is there. I can't not go see her knowing she is going to be there.  She will be hooked up to machines with all sorts of wires. I plan on leaving the munchkins at my parents house mainly because  I don't want them to freak out over seeing their big sister in that environment. Hopefully they will be able to catch it and figure out what is triggering her more frequent seizures. She gets out on Thursday. Then on Friday she goes to another specialist. She's had a sinus infection for three months & they did a scan. They found some sort of mass in her sinuses so that's why she has to go to see a specialist. Hopefully it's something that can be fixed with medication.

I finally finished my book one night last week and then watched the movie the next night. Its sad I don't even have time to hardly even read anymore. Anyways Courageous is a must read and a must see!!!! I think everyone could learn something good from it. It's reminded me that when I'm feeling like I have been lately that instead of stressing out I need to just take a moment to PRAY! I just have to remind myself sometimes that God is in control and everything will work out just as he has planned.

Mardi Gras Parade

As president of RCMC I received an email a few months ago asking our club to participate in a Mardi Gras Parade at a retirement community. I was all for the idea! It was on a Friday so most RCMC members had to be at work.



Four of us participated, and my husband tagged along with his B4C Camaro. {I even put an RCMC flag on his antenna when he wasn't looking}

I was so very happy that I was able to participate in the parade. Not everyone at the retirement community is capable of driving themselves or even taking the bus. So for them to be able to go to a special event/parade is nearly impossible.

We bought Mardi Gras beads to toss out, then we were given more of them twice after we arrived as well as whole boxes of mini moon pies to toss to the crowds. We lined up and then, I moved my daughters car-seat from the back to the front just for the parade. {it was on private grounds and we were doing about 5mph} My husband did the same with our son in his car.

Baby girl absolutely loved tossing the beads, and moon pies to the crowd. She was upset once we reached the end of the parade route, because she ran out of people to throw beads/moon pies to well before she ran out of the beads/moon pies! I was moved to tears over the fact that there were several elderly ladies lined up along the road, sitting in their wheel chairs draped in white sheets because it was a bit chilly out. One little old lady had even fallen asleep in her wheel chair. Bless her heart! It meant so much to me to be a part of something like this, it clearly brought joy to the residents at the community. People who normally don't have the opportunity to participate in such festivities.

The reflection on the bottom left corner is from my windshield.

We had a lovely day, it was beautiful and  sunny, and we spent it together as a family making other people happy. I hope that they make this an annual event & invite us back again!

I took a close up of the beads hanging from my rear-view window. I think it looks pretty neat.