Home is where the heart is

      We made the decision a little over a year ago to move back home. Many factors went into making this big change……being closer to family, a better high school for our son, a good youth group for our kids. Most people would think we were crazy. Shoot….at times…..we did too!!! We had not sold our home, my husband did not have a job to go to and our son was starting his senior year. We did a lot of praying and decided this was where God was leading us! So as the beginning of school grew closer, we knew the kids and I needed to go ahead and make the move. We did not want our son to move in the middle of his senior year. So we did it! The kids and I made the move to Alabama. Carmel planned to stay behind with his job until he found one in Al. Since we had so many unknowns, the kids and I moved in with my parents. Let me just stop and tell you how blessed I am to have parents that will let their daughter move in with her three loud and crazy kids along with a lot of our junk. We figured it would only be for a couple months……at the most! Well……those couple of months turned into 6 months.  

       We have been apart many times during our marriage due to his job but this time apart had to be one of the hardest. While we were apart, our dog was hit and killed(it was exactly a year ago tonight), my son was involved in 2 wrecks(one sent him to the hospital), our son was told he couldn't play his last year of football(the only sport he wanted to play) due to zoning issues(we finally got it fixed but he had to miss his first game). We began to ask ourselves, "Did we make the right decision? Maybe our move was not what God had planned for our family." After the 6 month mark, Carmel was finally put on orders in Al. It was good to finally have him back with us!  Several months later the job became official! After finally seeing the orders, we started to make plans to house/land hunt and get our stuff moved. I was really just wanting my Select Comfort bed!!!!!!!!

     When we first started making plans to move back to Al and settle down, we envisioned building our dream home on 40 acres of land somewhere. After a couple of months of looking and realizing the cost and distance of driving, we decided to put or dreams on hold for a bit. We started looking for a home closer to town. After another month of looking, we decided to……….

 build a house in a neighborhood. Although I really wish it was on land, I am so excited about the house!!!! We have moved 4 times in the past 10 years. Since we always had to move quickly and consider resale, we never built a home. This is a first for me. We I am loving the fact that we I was able to pick out everything. Every house we have lived in there was always something(or a few things) I did not like. When we lived in Florida, we fell in love with the open concept. Our floor plan is open! We love to entertain so this type of plan works well for us! I am sure I will be sharing more as we go through this process over the next several months.

So you may be wondering what we are doing in the meantime. Are you still going to live with your parents for the next 6 months? 

The answer is no. 

They kicked us out!!!! 

I am kidding they didn't actually kick us out but they sure were eager to help us move our stuff out!! Besides we did not want to overstay our welcome!! We decided to move into an apartment for the next 6 months while the house is being built. 

Finally after almost a year and a half, our plans are moving forward. On Halloween day(didn't think that one through), the truck was loaded with all our stuff from the house in Ga.

 This is always a happy and sad sight! I am happy to be embarking on yet another new adventure. I am sad because we all have to say goodbye to our friends and leave the house where memories were made. I can look into an empty room and remember details of our lives that had been forgotten. I always try not to stay too long in one spot or I might just change my mind about leaving. I will let you in on a secret. Before we left each house, I always had my moment of tears……in a room…..all alone! I think it helped me get in the car and drive away. 

Since we were leaving on Halloween day, the girls were worried about where they were going to trick or treat. Our realtor brought us these cupcakes just in case they were not able to go.

We really did not pick a great day to move. After the movers left, we stuck around packing up the misc things onto a trailer. We kept having trick or treaters coming to our door or asking if we were participating. Truth be told…..I really was not planning to be there that late. As for the girls, they threw on a costume from our stash and went with the neighbors.

Ella was a Southern Belle and Laney was a hot dog. 

 To sum up the next few weeks, it went a little something like this…..

clean the apartment

move in

travel back to Ga to clean the house & paint

move more stuff into the apartment

deep clean the rooms we stayed in at my parents

move more stuff into the apartment

At one time our stuff was scattered in 6 different places.

As soon as we thought we were getting settled, my in laws were in a bad accident. We travelled to SC for them and Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, we travelled back to Al for the Parker reunion(details to come). Stayed 2 nights in our apartment only to turn around again and come back to SC to help take care of my in laws.

Now you can see why I chose Home is Where the Heart is as the title of this post. Our hearts have been all over the place this last year!

Old Alabama Town field trip

      Our homeschool group went on a field trip to Old Alabama Town. This is a place that will take you back to what Alabama looked like many decades ago. Back in the day….meaning 4th grade……I went on this same field trip. It's funny the things you remember from your childhood. I can remember a field trip once to a store but can't remember Old Alabama Town. In my defense, there was a tornado that day so that may why. 

Ella participated in a class that morning where she was taught many skills such as candle making, etc. Laney and I met up with the group after lunch for the tour. As many times as I have heard or visited places from long ago, I find it intriguing! Although I enjoy some of the modern day conveniences, I think it would be nice to live during a period where it's not so tech savy and busy.

Here are some of the things we saw during the tour.

the school building

the store

a home

doctor

our group

AU vs USC Game

So……... I was going to come back from being absent(about a month) with a great post on why. Since I would like to have 1 more picture to include with it, you will just to have to hold on to your curiosity for a little longer. Meanwhile, I have plenty of catching up to do!

 We all know the outcome of the AU vs USC so I will not go into details about the final score and who won. The important thing is we went, had fun and still love each other. In case you are new here, I am an AU fan and my husband is an USC fan. Since my parents have an RV spot for the games, we met there for tailgating.

My dad fixed these hamburgers………

They were huge but good!

The place has a common area with a pool table. I think this was Laney's first time playing. It was a little obvious when she tried to shoot with the wrong end of the pool stick.

You will notice that Laney is wearing her AU shirt. It was her decision to wear it. I do not force my children to pick my team. I do buy their clothes however! 

Laney is smart though! 

She found a way to please both of us! At halftime, she switched shirts.

Apparently…….someone else has done a little shopping!

This little guy didn't come to the game but he was so cute in his AU attire!!!!

National Fair

Due to our schedule this year, we were not able to go to the fair as a family.  Since we were not able to go to the fair last year, I decided to take the girls myself. After looking at the best and most inexpensive time to go, we were left with a Tuesday morning. My girls were not too thrilled when they found out we would not be riding any rides. They did not open until 5:00. Since Ella had a ballgame that night,  we had to leave before they opened. We counted the fair as a field trip and enjoyed some animals, arts and crafts, food, shows and even a little PE time(running up and down steps). 

I heard several times from Laney how it's not fun if you don't get to ride rides.

In my defense, I did offer to walk down and look at them!

I got the...... preteen......mom your so lame look!

Pumpkin Patch

We visited a pumpkin patch a couple of weekends ago with my sister in law and her family. It was not very big and did not include all the extras but that was just what we needed! We only had 2 hours one Sunday in between 5 other activities so this place was perfect! We rode on a hayride out to a field of pumpkins, snapped a few pictures and were done.

We only had part of our family go. Carmel was out of town and Griffin had other things already planned. 

Since we had already carved a pumpkin, this one is keeping a scarecrow and flowers company.

Pumpkin Carving

Last week, our group at church had their annual pumpkin carving contest. Let me just start out by saying some people get really serious about their pumpkins. If you were to come to this event, you may see drills, huge knives, blueprints for carving plans, etc. Others(like us) kept it simple this year and just showed up with a pumpkin. Maybe next year we will step it up and at least come with a plan and a knife! 

Ella and her daddy's finished pumpkin.

Here are a couple of the top winners!

Apple picking with a couple of recipes

A couple of weeks ago, we traveled a little north to an apple orchard to pick apples. We have picked many different types of fruit and vegetables but never apples. There is nothing quite like an apple(or any fruit for that matter) right off the tree. 

We met a few of our homeschool friends there.

We picked Granny Smith and Arkansas Black. We have never had an Arkansas Black so I wasn't sure how we would like them.  I picked one off the tree and devoured it!  After that, I was kicking myself for not picking up 2 baskets. Luckily for me, they had baskets and boxes for sale back at store. I ended up purchasing a box with a combination of Granny Smith, Arkansas Black and Golden Delicious along with a basket of peaches. I don't know why but I forgot to get a picture of all the apples we bought home. I realized this halfway through cutting them into slices.

Imagine this times 6!

We had a tailgate party at church so I made Apple Fritter Cake. It was delicious!!!!!

Next up was 12 pint size jars of apple pie filling. I followed this recipe. Let me share with you 2 tips I learned from making apple pie filling. 

1. Go ahead and order clear jel online. I went to 4 different stores trying to find this stuff and no one had it.  It is different than Sure Jell. According to all the comments I read, cornstarch is a big no no when canning apple pie filling. 

2. Make sure you stir your ingredients before putting them on the stove and constantly while its cooking. The clear jel will clump if not stirred well!

After eating many apples, I had intentions on trying a few more apple recipes. Due to ballgames and going out of town, I had to freeze the rest. I followed this for freezing. The tip on soaking the apples in salt worked well!