Sullivan's island February 2014

I had the day off so we ran errands and walked on the beach with my hubby it was a little breezy but nice to be there to breath in the ocean air. 

Blue and Gold

Blue and Gold 

Jeff and I are bear leaders.We had our Blue and Gold tonight at the church. I made the centerpieces which took about two hours to cut them out. Then Jeff and I were in charge of the lemonade. One of my scouts told me that it tasted to watered down. I told him to tell brother Wright that cause he was the one who tasted it and said it was good. Lol! We had a great attendance :) 

Dad bday party

Jeff and I had everyone over to celebrate dads birthday. We had chocolate cake and chocolate icing with vanilla ice-cream with dark chocolate syrup (would there be anything else lol!).

We then had a big WII completion overall a great party! We had a blast :)

Seven months in SC

On the 21st we will be here in SC. We have had some great times here with family and friends. Also, going to the beach when others are having snow storms its the best. We have enjoyed not having to dig out our winter clothes hats,gloves etc.

Merry Christmas everyone in our 75 degree weather thought I rub it in one more time.lol!

Savannah,Georgia Ya'll

So for Jeff's last week of leave we decided to hit some all time favorites that my family has visited before. And one of those places was Savannah, Georgia. We left Monday morning and drove the two hours down 17 and 526 to get here. We stay at the Marriott by the riverside by the waving girl landing. We took a bus tour which was about an hour and they dropped off in city limits a section of town. We walked a while down there which there is a lot of walking and decided to get some lunch at a restaurant by the river. It was nice. We then made several attempts to get some candy from the famous candy store there and finally gave into getting some pralines. OH SO GOOD!! Expensive but good! We walked to the home of owen-thomas and took the tour which given to us free since Jeff works for the Coast Guard. The home was beautiful and cleaver in design very similar in the way Mount Vernon was but on a smaller scale. I loved garden and the stain glass which we really couldn't take pictures of the inside due to copy right laws. But it was fun. We went back on the ferry which is free by the way there is no sign saying as much but it is free...there are three stops city limits, the convention center and the waving girl landing. We got a magnet and some t-shirts to take home as souvenirs the next morning and got in the car and drove home. Good times!

one set of the steep stairs...

Jeff and I at the Owens-Thomas home

A view of the river walk from the
 "free" ferry boat. 

Owen and Thomas home

The garden inside the Owen-Thomas home...beautiful!

A view of our hotel Marriott at river front

brandon and kenny

Jeff and I drove out to Brandon's & Lydia's for a visit and some yummy pot roast on May 19th, 2013. 

brandon and kenny

kenny

Kenny being cool

April, Jerry and Kenny (too cute)

Jeff and I visited with Brandon and his family Katie had to go to work
so we weren't able to get her in the picture...they live in Troutville,Va

Fourth of JULY

So the fourth of July has arrived....we had a breakfast at the church building then went home and just relaxed. Then we went to the Johnson's home whom Ginny was housesitting for and watch their fireworks with the kids. There was a fire in the fire pit  to help drive off the mosquitoes. But the mosquitos still continued to "bug" us and suck our blood. Jeff and I are happy to be here in the South but have to find a way to protect ourselves from the bloodsuckers. lol! All in due time I suppose. Jeff ended up with 8 bites with one on his lip and I ended up with a couple on my arm.
Well here are few pictures from the event...enjoy! Happy Fourth!!

Ginny and her family except for
Stratton who getting the
fireworks ready.

April and her shared sparkler w/Jeff

Jeff and his shared sparkler with Me

Jack and his first sparkler

Lydia and her sparkler performance

spectators

Good Job JACK!!

72-hour kit

72-hour kit for couples

So I just re-looked through our 72-kit and boy do we have a lot of stuff that was outdated. So after 2 hours and one full trash bag we have a hygiene backpack/food backpack and a gadget bag...just have to get a few more edible things but we are set if a hurricane/flooding happens in our new area of SC

So I encourage everyone to look at your stuff. I try and look every conference but since our move I wasn't able too. So now we are ready till October of this year. Then I will check it again in April. Hopefully I can keep this up now. lol!

I looked at https://pinterest.com...it's a really great site for things and ideas that others may have.

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SUMMER!!

Hey-

So we have been in South Carolina for about a month now...hard to believe that we decided to take the leap and move all of our stuff here while waiting the paperwork to go through for his transfer with the Coast Guard. FUN STUFF!
We are excited to be here. Jeff had to go back to D.C. for a couple of weeks for work to wrap things up we hope. And is heading is way home today :) I have been organizing and organizing and yes downsizing some more. It is very interesting how much stuff a person not alone two persons collect in 40-49 years of life are doing good. And very proud of ourselves :)
Of course I have been to the beach with my dad and my parents today which was a lot of FUN! We saw a dolphin almost close to shore this morning mom thinks it was young male cause he was by himself. Pretty neat.Well, off to see if my nephew needs for me to get him some tennis balls. Love having family so close. IT'S AWESOME!!

new places,new faces

So Jeff and I sold our home in November within 5 days and closed a few weeks later. So we settled down temporarily in a place called Fairfax,VA in December. I am a total stranger to this place I know no one just a few people from my new ward. I have found the stores I need to shop at for our things and shopping more online then in the stores just to avoid the crazy traffic and having to carry stuff up two flights of stairs (3rd floor).
I pray everyday that my husband will be able to find a job that will take us out of this "congested and expensive"area so we can finally get some roots planted. I am hoping for a warm environment but any place with Jeff will be "home" to me.

my new do

I decided to make a hair change once again...my hair was all the way down my back and I decided in order to really pound the ground with working out the hair has got to go short so it's a little more manageable now and I since the "change of life" is coming early for me it keeps me cool lol!!
Jeff and I have started going to the gym in our apartment complex every night except weekends and I have been faithfully working out with our Wii fit and have lost 10 lbs :) Just in the month of January...here is to a healthy 2013!

Goodbye Kat

We decided that's best for Kat to find a new foster couple due to Jeff's allergies. It has been a fun 18 months teaching her some tricks and playing with her :) I hope she will be happy in her new home in Lorton, VA. Thanks Kat for letting us take care and love you.

Working out

Okay, I (April) have been a slacker in the "exercise" department. I started my cardio workout with the biggest loser DVD and it's working quite well. I did workout today and I feel great! Now to keep it up for the rest of the week. Wish me luck!

Day 3- I did a workout on Friday of last week so that makes 3 days with this video. I hesitated to do this video today
Cause I am getting a little bored with it. So one more day and then I will introduce the next exercise DVD ( I have lots).
Today is Supposed to be day 4...but since I got really sick yesterday afternoon with a fever and headache. I decided to take it easy today.
Tomorrow I will be painting my mom-in-law apartment with my husband so that should make up for not exercising today...Right?? lol!

So, I survived painting the mom-in-law's house...It took us from Thursday afternoon 3:30 pm till 12 am then 8:00 am-12:00 am stopping for supplies and lunch on Friday then 3:30-9:30 pm on Saturday after setting the room back the way it was and putting all our stuff in the car we left about 10:30 pm Saturday night. Whew!! It was a lot of work but worth it! It looks great! Mom-in-law doesn't return home until the 22nd of next week so we will see if she likes it. I wish I had taken pictures but,as you can see there was no time all work and no play (which I really wanted to prance around Charlottesville and Carter's mountain) Does this count as a workout for three days?? I think so...I stepped on the scale and have lost 1 pound!! Wahoo! So, this week I am doing the unconventional way of exercise or some may say typical? It is.....HOUSEWORK and GROCERY SHOPPING!! that we so needed to get done and some projects wish me luck with staying busy as I try this week's Housewife way of exercise and hope to see some progress done in our home as well as with my physical strength and endeavor.

Okay- here are the results from last week....3 lbs!!!! that is right housework does help you lose weight :)
So for this week I have been walking and yes more housework....I will let you know what the results were I know something is working cause my clothes are fitting better.
p.s. mom-in-law called when she got home from UTAH and said that she LOVES the new colors in the apartment. So all that hard work paid off...literally.
October 3rd,2012
Okay I have been a slacker on blogger. It has been really busy here in our household. I have started exercising with the wii fit. It's great! I workout 30 minutes a day 5 days a week. I can see my clothes are becoming looser. . So I will keep you posted on sizes and hopefully weight-loss. Wish me luck:)

It's raining,it's storming, it's hailing???

We are finally getting some rain in our area hopefully enough to get us out of a drought.... So for all of those who wish they ran out in hail so they could see it up front and personal here you are a couple of them. Enjoy!!

The Butlers new play set

Jeff and I are in Gaithersburg,MD for the weekend watching our nieces (4) and nephews (2) for Jeff's sister Terrilynne while she is away attending the Glen Beck event in Dallas,Texas. We have had a good time starting last night with having an all you can eat taco salad and all you can eat ice cream sundaes :)

Jeff outside helping the assembly guy put the kids swing-set together.

the nieces and nephews enjoying their new swing-set

swing-set is a sucess

Today we awoke to the excitement of getting a brand new play set put into the backyard. The contractor arrived (just one mind you) to put this play set in and Jeff and I looked at each other and thought this will not get done today with just the one guy! So, Jeff volunteered his time today (7 hours) to helping this contractor assemble this huge play set and guess what we are finished!! Well somewhat a couple parts were missing that will be arriving tomorrow....so here are some pictures from the whole day....the rest of the swingset is a set of monkey bars....it is like to two playsets put together with a sand box and a picnic table area underneath...pretty cool!

Charlottesville,VA

We traveled down to Charlottesville,VA today to help Jeff's mom out with some projects around the house. One is to help her with getting the computer to connect with the wireless printer the other is to pick out paint swatches at Lowe's to help her repaint her home in August while she is away on Vacation in Utah. We asked her about some areas around for Liz and Jon and she said she believes the Villa'a in the south are apartments. There are a lot pretty areas around Charlottesville. I am sure they will pick a nice area for their family to live in and we will be happy to come and visit :)

South Carolina 2012

Jeff and I traveled to South Carolina in July 2012 to visit with the family down there.We went and saw the oldest tree which is about 400 years old with everyone. It was great! We spent 4.5 hours on Sullivan's island beach with mom and dad it was a BEAUTIFUL DAY!! Jeff and dad flew kites. Mom read her book and sat in the ocean. I did a little sitting in the ocean myself with some fear of what happened last time I was in this ocean (got strung with jelly fish) but I did alright. Dad and I walked a little on the beach and caught up on some things. 
We stayed in Virginia's home in her loft with her brand new bathroom and shower it was delightful!! We attended a river dogs game on Monday night after being all day in the sun at the beach it was a little warm due to sunburn and being the hottest week since like forever ago. But,overall it was a great experience :) We did some shopping downtown eating lunch at Bubba Gumps (Jeff first time) and then some shopping at the outlets. It was great! We spent some time in downtown Summerville looking at the shoppes there love them! We had ice-cream at the old pharmacy in town. Jeff and I got our Big on the Pig shirts we plan on wearing them to the next family event they are way awesome! We had a nice BBQ at Ginny's house and some beautiful fireworks that were provided by the neighbor and Griffins. We spent some time at the watermark which was a lot of fun but HOT!! Our favorite was the lazy river and wave pool! Loved the movie/game nights with everyone as well as checking out the local $3.25 theatre and watching BRAVE! 

Well that is our vacation in a nut shell....we always enjoy being in the south. Good times! 

APRIL'S 40TH BIRTHDAY

April decided to bring in the 40's with a calm/quiet scenery. So, on April 15th...instead of driving the four hours that day to "the homestead" in Hot Springs we used Jeff's Marriott points to get a hotel and prance around Harrisonburg for the day. We visited the botanical gardens by the James Madison University. Just Beautiful!! Then we went to a movie at the local theater viewing "the Conspirator" on the anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln. After-wards we went to Outback to have dinner..and Jeff had them sing Happy Birthday to me. We then went back to the hotel and went swimming and sit in the Jacuzzi.

The next morning on my 40th birthday April 16,2011 we got up it was raining....we traveled to the homestead raining the whole time. I took footage of our trip on film. Little did we know that there were Tornado warnings all around us that might explain the creeks that looked like rivers and the high winds...when we had pulled over at the dollar store to get a drink and go the bathroom the ladies in there said,be careful out there!

When we arrived at the homestead the rain had stopped and I couldn't believe my eyes of the wonderful scenery and calmness of the area and saying to Jeff "oh my stars". As soon as we got our room which was jaw dropping the sun starting coming out it felt as though God was giving me a present of my very own on my birthday.

We had an awesome time...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Our Tree

Just chopped down our tree in the front yard...one because it was ugly and two well there is no two it was just plain ugly....we had a friend of the family come over with his chain saw and helped us carry away the tree. We made a big pile to burn in our fireplace....needless to say that ugly tree has kept us warm...Goodbye tree...the squirrels and the birds will miss you.