Keri's Korner

New Chapter

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:25:00 +0000

Well, I believe it is time. This blog has lived its life. I'm starting a new blog that I will reveal in time. There are changes afoot and I don't want to reveal them just yet.

I will update periodically and will do a big update when I reveal my new blog.

I'll leave you with this statement as a preview: Living a path of uncertainty is could be the ultimate test of your faith. I'm living my test.

Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:16:00 +0000

Monday was different.
I went to work, but it was like I couldn't concentrate on anything.
Derek changed the brakes on our friend Isaiah's car. His wife Kara fixed us supper so when I got off work, I went over to their house.
Like Isaiah said, it was odd being over on a week night.
We told them that I still had a curfew since we were living with my parents. They laughed. Before we were married I did have a curfew of 10:00 or so. Yes, I was 24 with a curfew. But it all goes back to the whole honor thy father and mother. That's just one of the rules that I followed. So they still pick on me about it.
Their kid Elijah is so funny. We never know what he'll say. We were sitting at the kitchen table talking and Elijah came in riding on his little 3 wheeler toy. Kara told him to go back in the living room and he rode by her and said "Stop being crazy." The look on Kara's face was priceless.
"Did he just call me crazy?"
"Yes. Yes he did."
LOL. It was so funny. We had a good time. I love being able to just go over to some friends' house and hang out and talk.
But.
9:45 P.M. came around and I started getting sleepy so we headed home. Derek played Black Ops when we got home. I sat in the chair and attempted to read a few pages in one of the books I got at the thrift store.
Fail.
I read maybe 1 1/2 pages. I went to sleep in the chair. Derek woke me up when he asked "Are you awake?"
No.
I got up and went to bed. I was going to let Bree, our dog, come get in the bed until Derek came, but I know how she is. She will get up there and walk around and not stay still. I was really tired so I just put her in her crate for the night.
Then I went to bed and was asleep before I hit the pillow.
Great Monday. Just different change of pace.

Weekend Wrap-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:49:00 +0000

This weekend was AWESOME!
Friday we were hanging out with some friends when a lightening storm came through. We stood outside for a little while and watched the lightening light up the sky. It was a remarkable sight. Too bad I couldn't get any pictures.

Saturday was the best. I got up and cleaned house while Mama was outside cutting bushes. When Derek woke up, we went to town to the thrift store to see what good buys we could find. I got 6 paperback books for $1. Derek found an awesome leather jacket. We looked it up and its worth probably about $100-$150. I think that was all.

Saturday afternoon when we were on our way out, after we had picked up some friends, we were driving down the road and there were some police and I noticed an ambulance in the field. There had been a plane crash!

Saturday night, we went out to a CD release party. Now keep in mind, I live in north Georgia. Hickville. Necktown. Whatever you wanna call it. The party was for the Jeff Vaughn Band. It was at a place called Slow Water which is a place where people go kayaking. There is a big field there and they have a stage built for events.

Our friend Phil and his band Mill Hill was one of the bands that opened. When it got dark and Jeff Vaughn Band started playing, Derek and I were down in the middle of all of it. Derek's friend Cory and his son Peyton came with us and they were in the middle of the crowd too. It was soo much fun. I took some great pics too. Here are some pics!

This is Phil with his band Mill Hill.

This is the Jeff Vaughn Band.

Smell of Success

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:03:00 +0000

Monday evening my mom mentioned possibly making some more pear preserves to try and use the pears off of the tree in the back yard.

"I'll just wait and let Daddy pick them tomorrow," she said.

Instead of waiting, I got up a little while later and went outside and picked pears. I came in with a 5 gallon bucket.

"It takes two buckets."

So I went outside and picked another 5 gallon bucket of pears. I was picking the pears from up in the tree with a garden hoe. It was interesting because I couldn't always see if there were bees and june bugs on the pears. When I pulled a few I had june bugs and bees flying around me. Luckily I didn't get stung though.

We went walking Monday night after I picked pears and then we came home and peaked and cut them up. Mama prepared them for last night's cooking. She had a meeting to go to so she left me to the cooking. They took about 3 1/2 hours. It was ok though. Derek and I cooked supper. Chicken, mashed potatoes and broccoli with cheese. OOOoo... and some homemade Red Lobster biscuits. Yummy! I actually made them by the recipe this time and they were spot on! I should have taken a picture. They were awesome.

I stayed in the kitchen most of the time to keep the pears stirred. Mama got home about 9:00. We started jaring them up around 9:30. She started and I finished them while she went and took a shower. I ran out of jars and still had some pears left so I had to go on a hunt for jars. We had been making pint size jars but I found some half pints.

In all we have made 25 pint jar, 1 quart jar and 3 1/2 half pint jars. The last half pint last night wasn't full so we put that in the refrigerator and I enjoyed it on a piece of toast with my grits this morning. It was scrumptious.

Great Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:28:00 +0000

This past weekend was great. Friday, I got home from work and we had a thunderstorm. Derek and I sat on the back porch and watch it come up and rain. It was so nice. The storm blew away some of the heat.

Bree was out on the back porch with us watching it. She's scared of thunder though.

She looks terrified in this picture. She was just walking around the back porch until there was thunder and she decided she better get in mama's lap.

I stood up because the rain was blowing through the screen. So I leaned up against the freezer. She thought that this was the safest place apparently. She didn't move until we went inside.

After the rain let up some, we decided to go to town to get something to eat. Bad idea. The town was about 10-15 minutes away. They had no power. So we turned at went on a little further north. While we were driving down that road, we saw a rainbow. We stopped and took some pictures.

While we were taking pictures of the one rainbow, I noticed that there were actually two rainbows!! A DOUBLE RAINBOW!!! WHAT?! Yeah, we were sufficiently amazed.

It was pretty amazing.
After we got some tacos from Taco Bell, we went to a friend's house.
They had baby frogs on their porch.

Saturday night we went to a place called the Sandbar. This is a restaurant down by the river. Its a little ways off the road down a dirt road, but it worth it. It is also the ending point for people who are kayaking down the river. So they get a lot of business. We went because our friend Phil's band was playing. Our friends Kara and Isaiah and they son Elijah went with us.

Kara loved the fried green tomatoes!

The chicken wings were awesome!

And the band was awesome too!
There was some excitement towards the end of their second set.

This guy in his truck, obviously drunk, drove down the rocks where the boaters get out and right into the river. He got just a little ways down the shallow part and then the tires dug in.

He kept revving his engine trying to get it unstuck. The truck didn't move an inch.   The people who ran the Sandbar went down there and talked him into leaving.   He left.

But he came back.
This time, they just called the police. So about 10 minutes later here comes 3 Sheriff's Deputies. They pulled up, got out with guns drawn and we watched them go through the woods with their flashlights.
They brought him up in handcuffs and gave him a sobriety test.
He supposedly blew a 1.7 . He was druuunnk.
They found some things in his truck that will probably keep him in jail for a long time.
That was an interesting end to the night.

It did rain some, but they had shelters set up this time.

Sunday was great too. We went to church then came home and grilled hamburgers. Derek and I went to town to get a replacement gas tank for the grill.

When we got back, mama had started cooking pear preservers and O.M.G. It smelled sooooo good in that house. I wish I had a candle that smelled like that. I love making memories with my family and friends.

Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:07:00 +0000

This past weekend was pretty fun. We went out with some friends and played pool for a while. We left one group of friends cause they had to go pic up J's wife so me, Derek, Kara and Isaiah went to the Georgia Diner. The Georgia Diner used to be a Huddle House and I wish it still was.

There was this lady in there that used to work at the local Burger King. Derek saw her and wasn't quite sure that he still wanted to eat there. That wasn't really my problem. My problem was the cook. He was this tall old man that was sweaty and was eating while he was cooking with no gloves. Yuck! But we stayed. Isaiah was really hungry. We scarfed down our food and went back to their house. We were gonna play a game of monopoly, but it was already midnight so we went on home.

Saturday night though, we went back over there to hang out of Kara and Isaiah's house. We played Scatagories and ate breakfast for supper. It was yummy! And I made a dump cake. It was great and we had a great time with great friends.

UFC: Animal Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:07:00 +0000

About 3 months ago, our household acquired another pet. Her name is Friday and she is a kitten. But that doesn't stop her. She is fierce. She takes care of herself around the other cats and dogs.

When it comes to Bree, she goes all out. Its so funny watching them play!

Mac and Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:46:00 +0000

Yesterday I was just tired all day. Derek said he would cook supper for me. So I said ok. But.... I decided I wanted some home made mac and cheese. So we put the noodles on to boil. Derek had already cooked some chicken in the oven. I decided to help cook and made some garlic and cheese biscuits.

That food was..... sooooooo...... gooooooood....

Look at it...

Picture Time

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Instead of writing a lot about what's been happening the last month or so that I haven't blogged and foregoing the whole apology for not blogging, I'm gonna post some pictures of what's happened in the last month or so.... Here we go...

Watched the pre-4th fireworks with some great friends and their son, who we discovered

Then we went to North Carolina for the 4th to visit with Derek's family and see the fireworks there. We didn't get to see the whole show because it started raining and we had to get home anyway... but go a few shots.

While in North Carolina, we watched the UFC fight with some of Derek's cousins and his brother. That was a fun evening at Buffalo Wild Wings.

There was one weekend that there were some strong wind and storms. Some of our trees were blown down. Guess what we spent out Saturday night and Sunday afternoon doing?!

Here is our furbaby Bree Bree. She is a ball of energy when she's not laying around chillin.

Here is our new demon kitty, Friday. She's not really a demon kitty, but its funny the way she was just laying there and when she stood up, I snapped a pic just the time she shook her head.

I've discovered the yumminess that is the Starbucks energy drink...

Derek and I rode up into the pasture and fed watermelon rinds to the cows. The calf reminds me of a rabbit that has the same coloring and the big cow has a heart shape on its head.

I've got some other great pictures I want to share, but I don't have them on this computer. I will have to share.

I really want to start sharing more pictures and what not. I've got some pictures of sunflowers and from an acoustic concert that a friend did. So I guess that's it for now.

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:10:00 +0000

I know that I haven't posted in a while, but there has been some things going on at my work that have me stressed out to the max. I'd like to go into more detail, but I need my job. Those of you who pray, just pray for me that I will get less stressed and that things will work out for the best.

Thanks!!

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:12:00 +0000

So....

Derek has been home for a week and will be home until after Memorial Day. We've had a good time since he's been home. Him being out on the road so much makes me cherish our time together more. Yeah, I still get to talk to him on the phone when he's not home. But when he is home, I want to be around him the whole time.

We went to the auction the other night. They were selling this telescope. Well, I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention because I thought they said $5, but no.... they had said $35. OMG... I only had like $20 in my pocket. Luckily my brother had went and he agreed to buy it for me. Its still in the trunk of my car. I think I'll get it out tonight and put it together and see was selestial beings I can find! That should be interesting.

Yesterday our church did "Church on the Street" in a local housing authority. It was fun. They had blow up jumpy jumps for the kids. They had two local musical groups come out. There were two churches there. Ours cooked chicken, beans, and slaw. The other had hotdogs I think. And there was cotton candy. And shaved ice. And a dunking booth. It was a lot of fun seeing all those people having so much fun. Then they had a service afterwards for the community. Great fun.

And obviously, the world didn't end Saturday.....

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:51:00 +0000

Wow... I can't believe that it has been a month since I last blogged. At least I know I'm missed.

So lets see. Derek has been home once sicne he got the job. That was for a 2 week period. He went back out and has been gone for week. I've kept busy though.

This weekend I went trout fishing with my parents and younger brother. It was fun. At one spot, there was some other people there fishing. At one point, I hooked a fish and as I was reeling it in, I noticed that the other guy had caught one too. Well, it ended up that we had caught the same fish!! It had swallowed my bait and hook and had been hooked in the edge of the mouth by the other guys hook. I probably couldn't do that again if I tried.

We got out there around 7:00 a.m. We left around 10:00. It was a great time. Better than the last time I went. I only caught 3 or four the last time. So we went home and I helped Daddy clean fish. He skinned them and I filleted them. It was fun! I had taken my camera out and took some pictures of our catch and then Mama came out so I got her to take some pictures of my cleaning fish. So I've got some pictures. I'll upload them later. I just don't have my camera with me at the moment. They are so funny.

I do have a picture for you though.

LOOK AT THAT THING!!! That was in our office last week. It so ugly its cute. He is named Willard. One of the guys took it out to his farm and let it go. We just hope that its mama doesn't come around.

We had an opposum at our house about a month or so ago. Daddy caught it in a trap and let it go out back in the woods. It came back so Daddy set the trap again. He caught our cat Mokey. Twice. Poor kitty. I walked into the storage building where the trap was set and as soon as I opened the door he started meowing like he was dying. He was fine though. He was just trapped.

I'll post a picture of mokey later too.

Hopefully I can start posting more periodically than a month.

House Hunt Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:35:00 +0000

I've kinda started looking for us a house. I've found a few potentials, but there was one near my mom's neighborhood that I would really like to have. The only thing is, I know how to get on the tax assessor's website and check to see how much propertys are assessed at.

I just got off the phone with the person that owns the house I was looking at. It is assessed around $103K. He said that he is asking $130K. Ummm. No. That would be like giving him $27K. No thank you. And before we even started discussing the house, he said "I don't reckon I know you." I told him who my parents were since they only live maybe a mile away and had been there over 30 years. He said "I don't know them either, but I don't reckon that matters." Um no. They aren't trying to buy the house; I am.

So, that house is out of the question now. Back to searching.

He got it!

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:09:00 +0000

Wow.. I can't believe it has been over 10 days since I blogged. I've been really busy at work and our internet at home has been down. I've been calling AT&T, but they can't seeem to get their act together and help me with my problem. When I called last night, one guy told me that he was going to transfer me to the phone line department and demand that they send out a technician. Well, I did, but she said they can't get someone out until Wednesday. Grr....

So anyways, on to my big announcement.....

DEREK GOT A JOB!!!!!!!
Some of you may be thinking...'Wow... that's it?' Yes. That's it. Derek had been unemployed since July of last year. Luckily we had moved in with my parents only two months before that so we had somewhere to stay, but we have been struggling in the area of finances ever since.

I've recently been blogging about my experiences with tithing. Well, since January when I started tithing, I haven't necessarily been able to pay every bill every month, but Derek has been able to find little side jobs here and there to help. I've been tithing for about 3 months and in that time, Derek had applied for many jobs.

Finally, 2 weeks ago, he got a call about a job on a road crew. He went for the interview. We waited a week for them to get the drug screens back. Of course, we knew those would be fine.

Last week on Wednesday, Derek got the call that he was hired and they would be leaving on Saturday. Yes.... Derek left on the road Saturday morning. He will be gone 3 weeks at a time and then home for a week. You have no idea how much of a blessing this job is. Not because he won't be home, but because it was brining him down so much that he couldn't provide the way he wanted to. Now he can. He joked about being the one brining home the bacon now.

So that's my news and I owe it all to God for taking care of us.

Not Yet

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:42:00 +0000

Well, I have something that I'd like to share, but I'm not going to share it until we know for sure the details..... all I can say is that God is good and hears you when you pray.

Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 01:51:00 +0000

So..... other than trying to fix someone's iPhone and failing, today has been a good day.

Now, I'm sitting out the house watching Underworld, Underworld Evolution and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

I've gotten into the vampire movies so the movies have been interesting....

Night y'all!

He's Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:09:00 +0000

My God.... IS AN AWESOME GOD!

I wrote a little about tithing HERE a couple of weeks ago. Well, since we've started tithing, I still pray and ask God to help us out. No, Derek hasn't found a job yet, but there are still things that have happened that make me know that its God.

Today, I knew I had to pay my Visa bill. I was dreading looking at it because I thought it was past due. I pulled up the website and the payment was my normal payment and there was no past due balance! WHAT?! I just knew that there was some past due amount left from last month. NO! THERE WASN'T! When I looked at my past payment, I had been able to make 2 payments on that bill last month! I didn't realize I had done that.

Its just so amazing that I can ask God for a simple thing, and he allows me to indulge in awesomeness. I've still got plenty of other prayer requests. I'm not going to say they are unanswered because all prayers are answered. Its not always the answer that we want, but it is always 1 of 3 answers. Yes. No. Wait. My prayer requests could be getting a wait answer. Which is fine. I know that God is working in his own way and it will be in his own time that I see what the answer will be.

God is awesome.

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:35:00 +0000

So I really don't know what's up with me lately. I've been having really bad mood swings, but have been keeping to myself so as not to lash out on anyone. I'm not sure if its stress or what because I've have a couple of dull headaches in the past week also.

It doesn't help that I have to worry about an opossum standing in the bathroom when I open the door... I think he's still under the house...

Last night I tossed and turned all night long. I don't think Derek slept well either. I just need some relief.

Missing Documents and Opossums

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:43:00 +0000

So last week, I received a document that needed to be filed. Well, its missing. I noticed that it was gone from my desk on Friday, but didn't say anything because I thought I would find it.

Monday. No document. We search all......day.......long. Still no document. I hope that it was just misfiled and not shredded.

Last night, I was chilling out in the bedroom trying to catch up on some reading when I heard the bump and noises that we've been hearing a lot lately coming from the bathroom. Before I go into what the bump was, let me give a little back story.

My Kitty, when she gets off the screened-in-porch where she stays, tries to find ways into the house. Our house has a brick underpinning with vents every so many feet. The cats were pushing the vents in and getting under the house. My dad boarded up some of the vents and put wire over some. There was one that was missed however.

So Kitty was still getting under the house. She found a hole under the bathtub in my bathroom. So one morning, she is freaking out because she is in the hollow part of the tub. Under the sink that it connected to the wall between the shower and the sink, there is a removable panel. This is how she would get in the house.

So... last night, I open the cabinet and remove the panel and what do I see?! I big ugly opossum butt and big nasty tail! I immediately slam the cabinet doors. Derek grabs his gun, but it was gone. I guess I scared it when I slammed the doors. So, now we know what the noise maker was. It was no longer my kitty, it was a nasty ole opossum!

Anyone wants to opossum stew tonight? ;)

Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 18:30:00 +0000

This morning, I woke up with a headache that started last night.

It was my turn to serve in the one year old nursery this morning.

1 Year olds + headache= worse headache........

I like children, but I could have passed this morning....

Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:21:00 +0000

Today was pretty productive. I got outside and helped Mama clean up outside around the house and barn. Then I went with Derek to work on a guy's van. He made some $$$ so that's good.

Then we went to my brothers house and grabbed a few more boxes.

Now its a night at home chilling with my hubby. He wants me to watch the movie Friday with him since I've never seen it. Netflix on Wii it is!!

Y'all have a great Saturday night!!

Prayer Need

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:26:00 +0000

If you are the praying type, please pray for a blogger friends Britt's brother. He was hit by a car yesterday while skateboarding.

Please keep Britt and her family in your thoughts and prayers!

You can click on her name and it will take you to her blog. Visit and leave some thoughts and encouragement for her.

Internet Withdrawal

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:32:00 +0000

First, thanks for the birthday wishes! It was a great birthday. My mom gave me a big photo album filled with my wedding pictures. She said she new that's what I had been wanting. When I got it, I started crying. She said "Well I didn't know you'd like it that much." Hehe.. I really liked it.... no.... I LOVED IT! And I think Derek is taking me out to dinner tonight. I love him.

So on to the internet withdrawal. Yesterday, I got to work and there was no internet! Hence the reason I didn't get to post yesterday.

To begin with, I was fine. I had plenty of work to keep me busy. But then, I started getting to the work that required internet access. I didn't let it bug me though. I found something else to do.... make file labels.... straighten up my desk..... straighten up my files....

Let's just say, since I can't talk about some of the things that happen at work, there was a lot of drama and things I wanted to say, but we finally got internet back at about 4:30 yesterday. Then we found out that the internet had been back up and running since about 9:30 yesterday morning, but our router was dead.................... technology.... sheesh....

But today everyone is happy because we have internet. I guess its back to taking advantage of having internet access!

Have a bombdigity day!!

Beautiful Creation

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:22:00 +0000

I was on my way to the kitchen when I looked out a window and saw that one of the bushes beside our office had blooms on it. So before the cold weather takes them, I went an cut me a few.....

I needed something to add some color to my office... This worked perfectly!!

The color in the picture is brighter than what they actually are... They are a deeper red. But either way, they are beautiful!!

Guess its a birthday present from mother nature ;)

My Special Day

noreply@blogger.com (Keri) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:31:00 +0000

Guess what today is!!!!

MY BIRTHDAY!
I'm now 26 years old.......
And guess what I'm doing on my birthday.... working......
Guess what else I got to do on my birthday!! ........go pay the taxes and tag on my car!!!.........
Today has been a great day so far so I'm not complaining....