Thursday, August 23, 2007

Where has...

The time gone? Time flies so by so fast. My son, Cody, has gone through a rite of passage tonight. He had orientation for the 7th grade, junior high. It seems just like yesterday that I was giving birth to him, then I was sending him to preschool, then to kindergarten and now to junior high. It is so hard to believe that in two weeks, my son will go through another rite of passage...he will turn 12. Time flies when your having fun. Cody has been a blessing in my life. And even though he can talk my head off, I couldn't imagine him any other way :)



O.K. on to other sappy stuff.... I submitted another layout to the Basic Grey gallery for their consideration. I am still waiting to hear if they will accept it to their gallery. The name of the layout is "Who Is She".

This is the journaling....

Who Is She?

© By Kyle J. Underwood

She's a soft cool rain on a hot summers day. She makes me laugh with the funny things she has to say.

She's the beat of my heart, and the air that I breathe. She's the sun and the wind, and autumns golden leaves.

She's the pride that I feel when I know she's done what’s right. She's that warm feeling I get, when I remember tucking her in at night.

She is homework and sports, and a busy social life. She has this beautiful smile that could light the darkest night.

She is the scared feeling I have when she stays out late. The feeling that I am loosing her, when she wants to date.

She's the mixed emotion I have, as I watch her mature and grow. I tell myself she will never leave, but, I know in my heart that someday she will go.

I hope the man that steals her heart, will treat her like a queen. Because she deserves so much more, than a man that treats her mean.

I will always cherish the wonderful times we have had. The best part of my life was being her dad.

So now you know who she is, she's my little girl. I love her with all my heart, and I always will.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

I've Been Tagged....

A very good friend of mine, Tricia, tagged me and now I need to finish these statements and then tag someone.....

I'm happiest when....I am at home and the kids aren't fighting or tattling and it is peaceful!

Someday I'm going to... go to Australia.

When I'm really down, what I want to do is... curl up in the bed and just be myself for a little while. If I get to do this, then I am o.k. in a little while.

I feel anxious when...There is something wrong with Wayne or one of the kids and their is nothing that I can do to help them.

I like people who... are sincere, thoughtful, caring, not fake....

All it takes to make me happy is... my children, my husband, and being able to scrapbook.

What I really want to do is...keep Wayne and my kids happy.

A person really should...think before they speak and MEAN what they say. NEVER LIE.

If I could do whatever I wanted, I would...never have to pay bills again!

And now my turn to tag someone......sooooooooo Donna, Di and Becky.... your it...

Monday, August 13, 2007

Time Flies

Boy time sure does fly when life comes at ya, huh? I didn't realize that it had been so long since I posted. So I guess I need to update on the past two weeks!!

Well I have started teaching scrapbooking classes at a local scrapbook store; Almost Heaven Scrapbooking. I am having such a great time teaching again! I had forgotten how much I missed it. Everyone that takes the classes seem to enjoy them, so that is a plus:)

Well I tried out for the design team at Creative Scrap Shack. I was not one of the lucky ones to make it, but that's o.k. I had fun making the layouts for the call. Here are the items that I made:
I had to make three items that showcased one product line. So of course I showcased Basic Grey Romani Line. I made a card, an altered coaster accordian album and a layout of Ariel. The next thing I had to do was make a layout using three different techniques. So I found the perfect picture of me and my grandson Dominick. The three techniques that I chose was inking, chalking and stamping. For the last thing that I had to do was a challenge layout to submit to the forums. I chose a layout that I had done of Wayne walking down a set of train tracks.


Even though I didn't make the design team, I had so much fun creating everything. And the ladies that did make it deserved it!!!! My dear dear friend Tricia was one of the awesome designers that made the team :) I am soooo happy for her.




I HAVE TO TOOT MY HORN NOW!


While I was working on my design team submissions I also submitted the layout of Ariel that I had done to the Basic Grey Gallery. They accepted my layout and it is posted in their gallery. I spent a lot of time working on this layout and put my heart and soul into it. I also used the Basic Grey Romani line. I cut out each image of the print paper by hand to frame the picture of Ariel. I also cut out the swirls that was on the paper. I then used Diamond Glaze on the cut outs to add dimension and also used glitter on the swirls. The word Unique is a rub-on from Autumn Leaves. I also used Prima flowers and brads on the border. I really got out of my comfort zone on this layout and I am soooo happy with the way that it turned out. I think that it was one of the best ones that I have ever done and I am so proud that I could do something good enough for Basic Grey to accept into their gallery.











August, 11, 2007

The annual Big Room gathering (fire department picnic) and football game.


Well we had the annual gathering at the fire department for the firefighters and their families. And then we had the annual pool party football game. Here are some of the pics :)





Sunday August 12, 2007


Well we decided to go out of town for the day. We rode up to Pence Springs and stopped in Talcott at the Big Bend Tunnel and took some pictures:)So it was a really nice day, but there is one thing that made it even nicer! When we were in Louisiana we lost our precious boy Thunder. He was our german shepherd. Ever since that happened I have wanted to get Wayne another one. Well now please allow me to introduce Xena, the newest addition to our family: Xena is twelve weeks old and is full blooded german shepherd. We bought her from a couple that Wayne works with. She was one of the lucky ones as four of her brothers and sisters died of parvo because they were too young for the shots, but Xena and another brother survived. She has a clean bill of health from the vet and has already worked her way into our hearts and family. She has especially latched on to Cody and sleeps with him too. She has only had one accident in the house and she is very quick learner it seems. Betsy still doesn't know how to react to her. Our docile little Betsy now growls, lol....

O.K. so now I have updated to the present, hopefully it won't be so long next time :)

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Time Away

Saturday July 28, 2007


Well we got up here to camp about 12:00 p.m. and got the car unloaded. Then we went out to see our normal sites and stop at the normal place. The normal place that I am talking of is Meck’s. Meck’s is a Mennonite Bakery that we come to every time that we are here. They make the most wonderful baked goods! Our normal purchase includes pepperoni rolls and sticky buns. Today we tried something new also… cream cheese pastry rolls…. YUMMO!!! They will definitely be added to our list of baked goods that we buy when we are there. It is sad that they are closed on Sunday’s and Mondays. But at least they are open more than what they used to be. When they still lived in their old farmhouse, they sold baked goods right out of their kitchen. Back then Mr. Meck only made glazed donuts, shoe fly pie and sticky buns. They were only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s. When the business became well known and very busy, they built a new house with the business downstairs and their living quarters upstairs. Sadly he no longer makes the glazed donuts. When they moved to the new house their insurance would have doubled if they would have had a deep fryer, so no more donuts. Well since then though they are open more days, Tuesday through Saturdays. So we make sure that is one of our first stops here!

I would share with everyone, but it is all gone and yummo it was sooooo good…. Are you jealous now? You should be. Maybe you need to visit Pocahontas County in West Virginia.

Another place that we visit every time that we are here is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Science Center. The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is one of the country’s most popular destinations for groups of all ages.

It is a state of the art 100 by 110 meter dish composed of 2,0004 individually hinged panels. The first one that was built collapsed during construction and had to be rebuilt. The telescope is 485 feet tall and weighs an incredible 16 million pounds.

Scientists from around the world use the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to study virtually all types of astronomical objects, from planets and comets in our own Solar System to quasars and galaxies billions of light-years away.



Sunday July 29, 2007

Well it is about 2:30 on Sunday afternoon. We came back to camp to get a bite to eat before we go out again. But I wanted to take a few minutes to write some down that we did and saw this morning that I didn’t want to forget. First off it was really nice to be able to sleep in until about 8:00 a.m. this morning. I got up and took the dogs outside and then put some biscuits in the oven and went and sat out on the porch. It was so nice and cool and quiet!!!! I love it up here. After we ate breakfast we got dressed and left. We went up to Cass, just missed seeing the 11:00 a.m. train leaving. We browsed around the general store there and then left. We took off on Back Mtn. Rd. there we found a gravel road and off we went. While going up I told Wayne that I thought that maybe the road went up to the top of the mountain, meaning Bald Knob, which is where the train goes to. We kept going and going and going. Finally we came to the top where there was a flat and two gates. One gated road went one way and the other gated road went the other. We decided to take a hike, mind you no food or water with us, lol…but we weren’t going very far anyway. Wayne said well lets take the one that looks more traveled, so off we went. We saw a lot of neat things. We found a couple of natural springs, and some of the most beautiful wildflowers I have ever seen. There was one with a butterfly on it and I did manage to get a picture of it. Cody and I were standing on the side of the trail looking at the spring and I heard something in the bushes, (Cody had already turned and started walking in the direction of his daddy. All of a sudden about 20 feet from me a doe jumps out of the bushes and runs across the trail. Scared the piss out of me, but was beautiful to see in the same token. We did see a lot of deer tracks. We kept hoping that this trail would lead to Bald Knob, but after walking about 1 ½ miles we decided to turn around and go back to the car. That is when we heard it. From the opposite direction of where we were, it was the train’s whistle. So we figured it we would have taken the other road, we would have found the train and Bald Knob. But we will save that hike for next time.

We will be off on another adventure here in just a little bit. Hmmm, I wonder where our adventurous nature will take us this afternoon.

Well no real adventures this afternoon, but I did get some pretty cool pictures on top of Snowshoe Mountain. We went to eat in Marlington and sat on the porch of the restaurant and fed the ducks corn. We love doing that when we are up here, it is one place that we stop at, at least once whenever we are at camp. It was sad to see a for sale on the restaurant, but it is still open. I hope that it stays the same if it is sold, it would be sad to see it change.

Well that is all for today. I wonder where our adventures will lead us tomorrow….

Monday July 30, 2007

Another great day!

Today we were able to so something that we have never done before! We took off on the road and went up to Allegheny Mountain to the Civil War Battle site. There are still some of the rocks of the shelters that left from that time period. Well we walk into this field and we are knee deep in wild blueberry bushes!!!! There were enough blueberries there that we could pick them for weeks and never get them all!!! I have never picked blueberries before. It was fun being able to pick berries and not get stuck by thorns. So tomorrow morning we will be having blueberry pancakes! The kids are happy. If I had my recipe book, I would make some homemade blueberry muffins!

We had to leave the patch after about an hour as it started thundering. Do you know how loud thunder can be when you are 4,000 feet above sea level? It is absolutely amazing! It is so loud and the crackle of it is like nothing I have ever heard. Can the word clean and crisp describe thunder? If so, then that is what it was like. So we left and came back to camp.

Once back we started to cook hamburgers on the grill. After we ate we had a pretty good storm here. I laid on the couch on the porch. I had to cover up because it was really chili and it was soooo relaxing listening to the thunder and hearing the rain on the roof of the porch. So of course I fell asleep for a few minutes. I woke up so rested and rejuvenated. Now we (the girls) are sitting and watching a chick flick. The movie “Because I Said So” it is really good. The guys just left to go out deer spotting, so they will be gon for a while. So once again peace and quiet.

I will be sad when tomorrow gets here, because it will all be over. The peace and quiet, the not having cable, phone or internet. Back to reality. But know this…that if Ariel did not have to go to band camp and I didn’t have to go pick up Joey, then I would be staying here for another week or two. I can’t wait to get our camper here so that I can come up here whenever I want to. It is only a three hour drive, so that is not bad to be able to escape from reality.

You know there is something to say about not have phone, radio, tv, and internet...Peace and Quiet. You should try it sometime.


Here are some of the pictures that were taken...