A hot day in Flowery Branch

Everyone is home from church and it is time to relax. My husband has taken the boys dirt bike riding and me and the girls are catching up on some television. It has been a pretty easy week.There were no sports practices this week due to the heat index so I was able to work in my garden. The squash plants were getting infested with bugs so they were discarded. I now have more room to get to my hundreds of delicious,ripe cherry tomatoes. Yesterday I must have picked at least 50!! I decide to freeze them for use in a sauce later. My garden has really gone well this season with the exception of the carrots. I think I probably pulled the carrots to soon. My kids start back to school next week so we did a lot of shopping this weekend. My daughter says she wants to "make a statement" this year. Last year she was in middle school and had to wear a uniform so I can understand her excitement. I was very proud of us, we shopped at the local thrift stores and got several high end jeans and shirts for about six dollars each. Also I got my son ten outfits for under thirty dollars! What a savings and my daughter thought it was so much fun. Her friend asked me to take her school shopping there! Could this be a new trend? Well that is about the extent of the week without to many boring details. I have procrastanated enough and must clean up the dishes from breakfast this morning. Until next time.....

CAMPING WITH KIDS

I think camping is a great way to spend quality time with the family. My husband and I have been taking our kids camping since they were two and five. Now that our kids are older (11 and 14) we finding that we don't have as much time to camp on the weekends, due to sports and such. Well about two months ago we got a chance to take them camping once again. This time we decided to let each of them bring a friend. Let me say we have camped many places both primitive and so called luxury,  but our favorite is primitive. Primitive is what we consider hiking into a campsite that no one or very few people venture to go to. So this camping trip we decided to hike into our favorite spot, Dick's Creek, which is right above Cleveland,GA. At the end of the very long dirt path you park your car and hike in about 2 miles, across two creeks, and down in  a deep ravine is our spot. We have done this with our kids many times so they know what to expect. But this time we brought their friends whom are also brother and sister. We have known these kids since they were babies, so they are really family. We got everything planned and packed then off we went. We packed a lot of equipment, more than usual because of the extra mouths to feed etc. So we drive to the end of the dirt road, park and get our gear together. The kids each had big backpacks (about 30 pounds each) and my husband and I had a 60-80lb backpack each. We also have a cooler (about 60 lbs) to hike in. This trail that we have been hiking for years is perfect. It is very soft ground and pretty flat, a relatively nice hike. Well about 1/10 mile in we started noticing big pieces of white gravel , basically just big rocks. This gravel looked like it had just been spread , and probably was put out after the bad storms to help with run off. Big Mistake!! The gravel only got thicker and worse as the hike went on. I was thinking the whole time, "What kind of idiot Park ranger approved this?" Well we made it to the campsite, all with very sore feet and ankles. My husband and I were so disappointed that our beautiful hiking trail had been ruined. The rest of our trip was great , but we will never go back, due to the destruction of our trail. So my advice to campers looking for a good spot at Dick's creek is to go up early Friday and camp off the driving path in designated spots.

                                        Waterfall at Dicks Creek Campgrounds and Hiking Trails  Check out Dick's Creek Campgrounds!!

Journey of Working Wife and Mother of two busy kids on Weight Watchers

My name is Brandi and I am a new blogger so please don't have any high expectations. I have decide to start blogging because I happen to have two hours of "free" time while I wait on my kids to practice in they're sport of choice. In the past I have walked during the practice but lately it has been too hot and I feel deprived of nutrition being just starting Weight Watchers. This diet isn't difficult and it allows plenty of food I am just being very careful of what I'm eating and that's why right now I am starving!!I have always struggled with my weight and now that 36 is just around the corner it has become even more difficult to stay on target.I have 2 kids we will just call them Jane who is going on 15(oh no) and Joe who is going on 12.So this morning was pretty typical of others, my alarm sounded at 5:45am and as usual not being a morning person, I hit snooze 3 times finally dragging myself out of bed by 6:00.My husband usually makes coffee(which in my opinion is way to weak, but I am thankful)but he is off today so I stumble to let the dogs out(2 rat terriers) to potty, start the coffee and then slowly make my way to the shower.My shower went way faster than I had wanted, I let the dogs in grabbed coffee, kissed the kid that was on the couch bye and headed off to work.As I said I have begun weight watchers again so I had prepared a bag of food to eat for the day.I finally got hungry around 8:00 so I had my so delicious(sarcastic) apple (2points) and got back to work. Oh yea I am a dental assistant so at times when a patient cancels or our schedule isn't properly filled I have time to eat etc.The morning went by slow because we only had a few patients, but finally lunch time. I had a yogurt for snack earlier (2 points) but again I am  starving.So I inhaled my juicy salad and 10 baby carrots then took my usual 45 minuted "power" nap.As I was waking up the hygienist who is also my friend arrived with a surprise chick filet brownie( 7 points)for me. Well of course I quickly gobbled that down being in desperate need of sugar, brushed my teeth and got back to the patients. The afternoon flew by as I had a sugar high to keep me happy. I left work at 4:30 and made the 30 minute drive home. When I walked into the kitchen I found my husband ( who had been off for the day) preparing a chicken and dumpling concoction with egg noodles WTH?But again I an thankful although I inform him that I only have 7 points left so I will be eating roasted zucchini. Only being home for five minuted I prepare the zucchini, change clothes,and instruct my son to get dressed for baseball practice. Thirty minutes later we are on our way to baseball practice and 30 minutes more we arrive.Now I am here writing my account of the day and am about to die of a heat stroke.It is 88 degrees out but feels 100 with the 190% humidity and I look lovely with natural curly hair. Yikes! So I hope someone will enjoy my tale of my crazy life and post back if yours is crazy too!