(*I know it’s not officially spring yet, but I’m done with winter, so for me it’s SPRING. )

In other news, our church’s HUGE consignment sale takes place this weekend. I always look forward to this sale. It’s held twice a year and I participate both as a seller and a buyer. Mickey and I are going up to the church later this morning to drop off the clothes I have ready for the sale. I enjoy getting money back, especially after shopping, but I have to admit that hanging and tagging clothes is NOT my favorite thing ever. At least it’s done. YAY! I will shop the pre-sale this evening and I can hardly wait. So much fun! Via this sale, our church receives 30% of all sales to go towards missions and I just love that. It makes me feel good knowing I can get some money back AND contribute to missions. What a great sale!!

Happy Thursday,

Kelly

Post from: Follow Faithfully

Spring Showers

Last week was book fair time at Mariana’s preschool. She didn’t actually go to the book fair, but Mickey and I went and did some fun shopping for her. She got some really fun books like Clifford the Champion, Katie Loves the Kittens and Dinner with Olivia. Mariana loves books and loves to “read.” She rarely lets us read to her these days. Instead, she prefers to take the books and “read” them herself which means that she makes up the stories as she turns each page. The cutest part is when she turns the page around to show her “kids” just the way her preschool teachers do. Love it!! It’s really cool to see her have such an interest in books and to see her creativity and imagination in bloom.

Macey’s book fair is this week. Today we get to go have lunch with Macey and then visit the book fair as a family. This is something we do twice a year at her school and we all look forward to it each time. Last week her class got to go to a preview of the book fair and the children got to create their wish lists at that time. Macey’s list includes the following – Library Mouse – A Friend’s Tale, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick and Pinkalicious. This time, there aren’t any chapter books on her list, but that could be because she has a ton of them already. She loves reading all sorts of books. Macey loves reading and enjoys reading to us too. She especially loves when she checks out AR (Accelerated Reader) books from the library each week because she likes to see which grade level she read each time.  It’s really amazing to me to see both of our girls blooming in their love of reading!

I’m just as excited as the girls about the book fair. Yes, we already have a library full of books at home. We have plans to donate some of them. Our friend Annie is serving as a missionary over in Kenya and she has requested books for the orphanage where she is serving. So, we are going to go through our books shortly and find a way to get them over to the orphanage in Kenya. It’ll be a great opportunity for me to go through the books with the girls and determine which ones to send.

We also donate at least one book to the classroom each time. The teachers fill out wish lists and we choose at least one book from the list for the classrooms. The teachers are always appreciative and it feels good to give back. So, book fair really IS a fun time for the whole family. I can’t wait to go again today!

Post from: Follow Faithfully

It’s Book Fair Time!

Southern Savers – If you live in the South, you really SHOULD follow this blog. Seriously. Jenny is the lady that runs this blog and she is a coupon queen. She can help save you and your family a LOT of money, especially on groceries. And, her site is completely free. I recently attended one of her seminars and I am officially all geeked up on couponing again. She’ll get you hooked too. Check it out and enjoy the savings!

The McGinnis Message – This is my friend Jawan’s blog.  Jawan and I met at music camp back in the early 90s. Now, I won’t say how old YOUNG we were back then, but let’s just say it was during high school. We became friends at camp and pen pals after that. As time went along, we lost touch. The Lord has allowed us to reconnect online first via MySpace, then via Facebook and blogging. I really enjoy Jawan’s blog. She is such a beautiful person – inside and out. Her faith and her heart for the Lord are so genuine and true. Check out her blog and you’ll even find good deals posted from time to time. (See a theme here?)

Proverbs 31 Ministries – Okay, so this is not a blog. However, it’s a wonderful and resourceful website for Christian women. There are daily devotions that you can read online OR subscribe to via email and so much more. Check out P31. It’s good stuff!!

If any of you have any blog suggestions for me, please pass them along. I’m happy to bookmark and read along.

Post from: Follow Faithfully

Follow Friday

With Easter coming up in a few weeks, this would be a good way to stock up on some nice items, right? I always love shopping at Family Christian. There is a nice big store not too far from our house and I am notorious for wanting to wander around that store for a long time. Just browsing is fun, but who can resist buying – especially with a coupon?

Happy shopping,

Kelly

Post from: Follow Faithfully

20% Off at Family Christian

Here they are putting the finishing touches on the snowman:

Love this one – can you see Macey? She discovered that I had come out with the camera:

Posing with their TALL snowman:

Mickey shows just how tall their snowman really IS:

Snowman huggers:

An adorable Miss Macey having fun in the snow:

You might wonder where Mariana was during all the snow fun. She was inside. Somewhat surprisingly, she wasn’t interested in going out to play in the snow today. She’s a little like her mama that way. We already played in it once this season, after all.

Macey and Mickey had a ball building this big snow guy. When Macey came inside as I was uploading photos, I asked her the snowman’s name. She didn’t hesitate before she said “Ed.” So, he’s Ed…the tall snow guy. Hopefully he’ll still be standing tall in our front yard in the morning. I’ll keep y’all posted.

Post from: Follow Faithfully

Meet Ed, the Snow Guy

I am not normally so “weather fixated”, but it’s been a cold winter by Georgia standards and this Southern girl is more than ready for some good ole sunshine. Today it’s cold (again) and we have rain and snow mixed. Mickey is bummed because our forecast originally called for up to 4″ of snow, but now we are maybe going to get a dusting or possibly an inch of snow. That’s nothing as far as he is concerned. As far as I am concerned, it’s more than enough. Brrrr. I just may hibernate today. It sounds so appealing, actually. I woke up at 1am and was awake for at least two and a half hours last night, so I’m tired and crawling back in bed to hibernate this cold day away sounds pretty good right about now. I won’t do that, but I just may sneak in a nap sometime today.

In other news, it’s “spring” picture day at Macey’s school. Oh, the irony of this crazy weather. Spring pictures in long sleeves – go figure. She looks adorable, I must admit.

I have to give a shout-out to Southern Savers because after hearing Jenny speak the other night, I’ve been back on the coupon wagon. I saved a LOT at Publix yesterday, so I am geeked up on coupon love again. Woo hoo!!

Off to do something productive around here. I think.

Happy Tuesday,
Kelly

Post from: Follow Faithfully

Countdown to Spring…

Post from: Follow Faithfully

Welcome, March!!

I have been wanting to get our grocery budget down and this is a great way to get that accomplished. I have never been one to really keep up with coupons. I will start clipping and using them, then get frustrated with my lack of a good organizational system. I still shop the good sales, mostly at Publix, but it will be nice to learn how to use coupons much more effectively.

I will report back tomorrow. I’m sure the workshop is going to be GREAT!

Post from: Follow Faithfully

Couponing Excitement!

Our trip was this past weekend! It was the first time either of us have ever been to New York City. It was a lot of fun! We arrived on a Friday and traffic was a nightmare, but we got the whole NYC cab experience that way, I guess. We got to our hotel and found out that our room would be ready in an hour, so we took that opportunity to go out for lunch. We asked the concierge for a recommendation and he suggested Thalia, so we went there. It was fantastic! We really enjoyed it! After lunch, we got settled into our hotel room and then decided to go walk around and explore. Here are some photos from our first exploration around the Times Square area:

Radio City Music Hall

Mickey in Manhattan

The skating rink at Rockefeller Center

We took MANY self portraits on this trip. Here is one of Mickey and me at Rockefeller:

We visited Top of the Rock which is the top observation deck at Rockefeller. Here are some shots from there:

Another self portrait

In this photo you can see the Met Life building

The Empire State building is shown in these photos:

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral

That evening, had dinner at Rosie O’Grady’s and then we went back out to the Times Square area. Here is a couple of shots of Times Square (not the best quality – sorry):

Yet another self portrait:

Times Square is really cool. SOOOO much going on at all times. It was fun to hang out in the area on Friday and just take in the sights. We didn’t stay out long because we were pretty tired from traveling, etc. So, we went back to the hotel and chilled while watching the Olympics. Okay, so it wasn’t the most “happening” way to spend a Friday evening in NYC, but we enjoyed just having some nice down time.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at Route 66 Cafe which was recommended by the concierge on duty at the hotel. It was SO good!! I had the Challah French Toast and it was delicious! We really enjoyed Route 66!

After breakfast, we decided to take a bus tour. Since we only had Saturday to tour, we decided to just take the downtown loop tour.

Here is our first tour bus:

And, here we are on the bus – yes, another of our self portraits:

The tour was really fun! A friend had given me the tip about taking the tour as a good way to really see some sights and she was right. It was great! Our first tour guide was really witty and knowledgeable. We really enjoyed his tour narrative. I wanted to go shopping at Century 21, so we got off the bus at a stop near that store. Century 21 is crazy! It is HUGE and just full of clothes, shoes, etc. at discounted prices. Mickey was truly a good sport about me shopping there. I have to give him all the credit in the world because he is NOT a shopper at all. The store was a little bit overwhelming, but it was fun! I walked out of there with some great stuff at even better prices. Yes!!

After C21, we walked by Ground Zero and saw the construction sight there. It’s still surreal, even more than eight years later, to see where the Twin Towers once stood.

We got onto another tour bus to complete our downtown tour and this time we had a guide that was politically motivated and cynical. We didn’t enjoy his tour guiding as much. We saw some cool NYC sites, but could have done without his rants. We had considered getting off at Central Park, but by that point in the tour we were starving and ready for lunch, so we decided to finish the tour out back around Times Square and get lunch in that vicinity so we could get back to hotel and relax. We went to Ray’s Pizza and it was VERY good. I had a cheese calzone and Mickey got pizza by the slice. YUM! That really hit the spot!! As we were walking back to the hotel, we decided we wanted something sweet. We were heading towards Europa Cafe which we had been into the day before when I got a nice cafe au lait, but on the way there we saw Crumbs, so we stopped in for cupcakes. Their selection of cupcakes is amazing! We wound up getting a four pack – brownie, Oreo, chocolate chip cookie and Reese’s. We split the brownie cupcake back at the hotel and it was delicious! We brought the other three home with us. What a fun and yummy treat!!

We relaxed in our room for awhile on Saturday late afternoon. I actually took a nap which was NICE!! That evening, we went to Azalea for dinner before going to our first ever Broadway show. Azalea was also recommended by the hotel concierge. (See a pattern here? Always talk to the concierge.) Our food there was very good! I had the Pollo con Carciofi which is a chicken breast with artichokes and tomatoes in a white wine sauce. My dish was very simple and very tasty. I really enjoyed it. Mickey had a great steak there as well. It was a nice meal to have prior to a show and very convenient to the Gershwin Theatre where we saw Wicked.

Wicked was absolutely amazing!! We had seen it when a touring production came to the Fox Theatre in Atlanta in October 2008. Seeing it on Broadway was definitely a hit for us! It was beautifully done. And, now that we have had a taste of seeing a show on Broadway, we definitely want to see more in the future!

On Sunday, we got up bright and early. Our concierge had suggested leaving the hotel via cab by 7:30 in order to get to the airport and through security in plenty of time for our 10am flight back home. So, we got up with the chickens – except that there obviously aren’t any chickens in NYC. We went to Junior’s for breakfast. We were the first ones to arrive. Our waitress was super sweet. Being a good Southern girl, I had to ask her how their grits are because I was surprised to see grits on a menu in New York City! She said that for New Yorkers, the grits are good, but a Southern girl like me (I told her I am from Georgia) wouldn’t like them. I had to laugh. So, I ordered their griddle cakes and turkey sausage while Mickey got an omelet. Our breakfast portions were really big and the food was delicious! It was definitely the right place to go for a nice filling breakfast before leaving the city. We also got a cheesecake to bring home because we had been given the advice that their cheesecakes are amazing.

Here we are in front of Junior’s:

We left our hotel right around 7:30 on Sunday morning. Traffic was really easy and we got to the airport and through security by just after 8am! When we got to the gate, another flight was finishing boarding for Atlanta. Mickey asked if they had room on that flight for us and, sure enough, they did. A really nice man changed seats so that we could sit together and we were on our way home earlier than anticipated. (Better than sitting in the airport for two hours any day!)

This was the view from my airplane window when we were on the runway:

A few aerial shots of the city from the plane:

We had a very easy flight home. My ears hate flying, so they were popping and achy, but the flight itself could not have been more smooth. Here are some shots I took from the window.

A partially frozen river – I have NO clue where this is actually located:

Our Creator is such a beautiful artist! I am awed by how different and yet beautiful things look from the air. Check out these mountains:

We arrived home and were greeted at the airport by Mickey’s parents and our girls. It was a VERY happy reunion after a wonderful weekend! We all had lunch together and then we came home while Mickey’s parents stayed at the airport to await their flight home.

NYC is definitely a world unto itself. I really enjoyed our visit there and I had a lot of fun. I’m enough of a country girl at heart to know I couldn’t even begin to think of living there. However, I’d love to visit again. I’d like to see more of the sites, take in some more shows and show our girls around the city. I’m so thankful to have had this travel opportunity and thankful that Mickey put together such a fantastic surprise for me!

Post from: Follow Faithfully

New York Trip

Kelly

Post from: Follow Faithfully

It’s that time of year again…