Naturally Frugal

Last sat. my mom and I were out shopping in downtown Acworth. We were just walking along when this sweet dog walked up to us. She didn’t have a collar on and no one was around. A girl from one of the stores yelled down to us asking if this was our dog? Apparently she had been walking around for a while. They were getting ready to call Animal Control but couldn’t find the number. We couldn’t just leave her there to walk around main street. I begged Brantley to let me bring her home until we found her family and he finally agreed. My mom and took the dog, bought her some food and took her home. We took her to Petsmart to have her scanned, thinking she may have been chipped. She was chipped but not registered so the only info they could give us was that she came from the Hiram Animal Hospital. The animal hospital was closed on sat so we had to wait until monday to hear anything. Monday morning rolled around and Petsmart caled me back. The lady told me they had a lead as to who her owners might be. As of tuesday we hadn’t found her owners yet. I put up ads online on a few pet finder sites but I didn’t hear anything. Over the week we fell in love with sweet Ginger. (We learned her name from the Hiram Animal Hospital) My mom also really liked Ginger and wanted to keep her if we didn’t find her family. On sat, now a week since we found her, we let Ginger go stay with mom. I was very sad to say good bye to Ginger, she was so much fun to have for the week. On monday morning I received a call about someone looking for a dog. I called them back and sure enough Ginger was theirs. I picked up Ginger from my mom’s and the family came and picked her up from my house. I had to say goodbye again. ;(  They were so glad to have her their doggie back. They gave us a reward, so we spilt it with my mom. Brantley and I went to Longhorn for dinner last night and had a great time. I am going to miss Ginger very much but I am glad we found her family. Hopefully Brantley will let me get a dog soon!! `

This is Ginger and my nephew

When we first bought our house I was at church telling some people what our plans were. You know, what colors we were going to paint and what we were going to use the other 3 bedrooms for. I was explaining that the large room over the garage was going to be an office/craft room. The only problem is that I didn’t have any tables or shelving units or anything. I had been pricing out fold up tables that I could get, they were all at least $45.00. We didn’t have the extra money to spend on those right now, so I would have to make do with what I had. There are 2 closets in the room and I was planning on using one of them to store my craft items. A lady named Barbara was near and could hear part of our conversation. That night she contacted me and asked if I would be able to use some craft tables? She had two. One was a sewing table that holds a sewing machine and a serger. The other is a long fold out table. She had one listed on Craigslist and the other she was going to put in their community garage sale the following weekend. She said if I could use them, she would rather just GIVE them to me, than sell them to someone else. Praise God! For those of you who do any sorta of crafting, you know how how nice it is to have a good work space. I couldn’t believe it. Of course I told her that I would be happy to take them off her hands. What a huge blessing. When she brought the tables over last night you could tell how excited she was to have found a young person who loves crafts. She got these tables when she was around my age (22) so there are alot of memories that came with these tables. I am so thankful to have received these from Barbara. I better get crafting now!

My mom’s friend, Miss Jill, came down to visit this past weekend from Ohio. We have known Miss Jill forever. Her youngest daughter and I grew up together and her older daughters were friends with my sisters. We had plans to spend Saturday morning and afternoon down in Atlanta, running around, having lunch, and sight seeing. Because of Hurricane Ike, we have NO gas! Therefore, all of our plans had to be rearranged and we had to find something to do closer to home.

There is a quaint tea room in Historic Acworth which isn’t too far from where I live. They have cute little shops and places to eat. We decided we would meet up at the Tea Cup Cottage right there on Main Street, then we would go to the shops. What a lovely afternoon we had. We could have been mad and pouted about not being able to do what we wanted, but we were able to really enjoy each other’s company and have a wonderful time.

For dinner my mom, sister, niece, and Miss Jill were all coming over for dinner at my house. It was so much fun just to have a girls night. No husbands, no sons, no nephews, just us girls! I made a white chicken chili and man was it tasty!! We had homemade rolls and salad to go along with the chili. For dessert we had a pumpkin angel food cake! Heaven! I made an awesome hazelnut whipped cream to go on top. Delish!! My sister had to leave around 8:00 to take her daughter home for bed, but mom and Miss Jill stayed for a while longer. I loved having them in my home, serving them coffee, sitting at my dining table just chatting about old memories and current events in each others lives. What a great way to spend a saturday evening. Now where was my husbnad when all this was going on? Well…

My husband LOVES college football. His favorite team is University of Tennessee and has been since he was a little boy. The last game he went to was probably 10 years ago or so. A guy at our church is a HUGE Auburn fan and he has season tickets to their games. Well, his wife was sick and didn’t feel like going to the game on saturday so she decided to stay home. It just so happened that Auburn was playing Tennessee and they had an extra ticket. Lara told Bill, Why don’t you call Brantley and see if he would like to go to the game with you? Of course Brantley would love to go the game!  So he and Bill drove down to Alabama to watch the game on saturday afternoon. I was so happy for him, that he was able to take a break from school, and church, and everything else, and just go to a football game and hang out with the  guys! God is so great!

This is my first “Gratituesday!” I am grateful for so many things right now I don’t now where to begin. I will start by sharing the gift I received today. As you know we just bought a house a few weeks ago, and we are still getting settled in. We had lots of help moving from family and friends from church. We were also given some nice house warming gifts. I got a couple of plants and my husband Brantley got lots of “Yard Toys” and we were also given a grill.

I have a friend that I met at church back in April. Stephanie and her family started coming right around easter and I instantly connected with her daughter who was in children’s church. I knew of Stephanie but didn’t really get to talk to her, only in passing. One night our church was helping out with an event in our downtown area. It was a “Concert in the Parks.” That night it was raining so we had the concert in the church downtown. Stephanie, my other friend Jamie, and I all talked together the whole night. Followed by an outing to Wendy’s! That night began  what is now a beautiful friendship and one that I look forward to seeing blossom and grow. All this to say…

A couple weeks ago, I was at Stephanie’s house and she told me she had a House Warming Gift for me. I thought, “Why on earth would you get me something?” She said as soon as she saw it she thought of me. Now mind you I have only known her since April so that is 4 or so months and she was on vacation for part of the summer. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of time getting to know someone well. She ordered the gift and it hadn’t arrived yet so I would have to wait to receive the gift… until today!!:)

I drove by her house on my way home from work to get the much anticipated house warming gift. She picked up on the fact that I love to bake and cook (and from scratch might I add) so what a better gift than a herb growing starter kit. Not only that but she found me some pots to plant them in that match the colors we are going to do our kitchen in! They are so cute and she was right, they are so me!

I am so gratful that she would have thought of me in this way and showed how much she cares about me and our friendship. She is a special friend and one the God has a GREAT plan for. She is a beautiful women with a huge heart for her husband her three kids and people in general. Thank you Stephanie for showing me the love of Chirst through your thoughtful gift!

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