Can I get an “Amen!”?

From here:

Hey, Four Eyes!

I have needed glasses or contacts since I was in seventh grade. It’s a pain some days, but I just haven’t saved up the money to get laser eye surgery done so I deal with it. When I hit eighth grade, I decided it was uncool to have glasses so I converted to contacts and wear them daily. I have had glasses, but usually only for backups when pollen counts are high and my allergies kick into overdrive. I visited my eye doctor in April and was shocked to hear that my “free” glasses would end up costing me almost $100! I have a really high prescription, so if I didn’t want to have Coke-bottle lenses it would cost me quite a bit to upgrade to the light weight ones.

My mom and sisters have used an online glasses provider a time or two so I decided to give it a chance. On one site, the frames started out at only $8! Visit Zenni Optical if you have a lightweight script—they were happy with theirs.Going back to the thick lenses, though, and I was going to end up paying about $50 a pair. While this was an improvement, I still thought I could find the right ones for me a little cheaper. Enter 39dollarglasses.com.

I found not only one, but TWO pairs of glasses that I just adored! What I really love is that you can print the frames to scale and “try” them on your face to ensure the proper size. I sure would hate to get a pair of glasses in the mail and them end up being too big or the wrong shape for my face.

I found a coupon code online and got two pairs for less than the eye doctor wanted to sell one pair of “meh” glasses for!

      

Both pairs came with a case, a microfiber pouch, lens cleaning cloths and a tiny little screwdriver.

I have my sparkly tortoise shell frames on today and I love it! I have a little bit of nerdiness going on because I have to push them up every few minutes. I haven’t tightened them up, but I have heard that the Wal**Mart Vision Centers will do that for free! I’m also slightly more awkward than I usually am (trust me-I’m pretty awkward to begin with!) because I am so used to having total clear and complete clear peripheral vision. The steps at work were a challenge so I had to stare at my feet when I was walking up. Overall, I am pretty pleased with my results!

**I’m not being paid or endorsed to tell you this. I just wanted to share my experience.

Walking on Sunshine

My SIL and Justin told me about a beautiful field of sunflowers not too far from my in-laws’ house and we rode by the other day on the golf cart, but I didn’t have my camera. After work today, I stopped by and snapped these pics. Hope they brighten up your day!

 

   

 

Goody Spin Pin

I have heard a lot of people raving about the Goody Spin Pin and have read a few positive blogger reviews and decided to try them out for myself. I have to tell you, I LOVE these little gadgets! I realized that I had an ever-increasing collection of pens and pencils at my house and finally figured out that I was throwing my hair up at work in the afternoons and using all of my pens and pencils chopstick-style. So I set out to find a set of these little miracle workers for myself. They look like this:

Our local Wal*Mart didn’t have them and neither did our Walgreens or Rite Aid. I finally found them at the second Walgreens I looked in. They were only $5.99 and they are worth every cent! Here are a few shots I took the first day I got them. I have since gotten better at tucking in the stray layers of hair.

     

I keep my Spin Pins in my purse so they’re on hand at all times. They hold my hair very well. In fact, I picked some peas Friday afternoon and my hair stayed in place, even though it was 90+ degrees and humid. I strongly recommend you try them out!

 

*I’m not being paid to say any of this—I just hope you find it helpful :)

Grilling out

I know I’m going to make you guys so hungry with all of these posts, but my hubbs is going crazy with cooking stuff on his smoker! Yesterday, he cooked four Boston  butt and a small slab of baby back ribs. Let me just make the understatement of the year by saying it was all AWESOME! Here ya go!

Justin got a slab of granite remnant for an awesome new cutting board. He still has to round the corners off and smooth the edges but it’s a great prep and cutting surface for all of this meat we’ve been working with.

 

He made this gadget to get the wood started. I swear he’s the most inventive person I’ve ever met. It was sort of like a flame thrower!

You see that pot below the ribs? Those are the most awesome baked beans. He put our cast iron pot below the ribs to catch the drippings. YUM!

   

We had twice baked potatoes and peach cobbler to round out the meal. We were ALL fat and happy when we got done eating.

 

Skie was a happy girl out on the porch all day.

 

Look at this little cutie! Our friends Matt and Nikki stopped by for dinner and brought their boys Jake and Cody. Jake was entranced with Wonderpets and Dora all night.

492

That’s the number of blogs in my Google Reader. I have gone over all of them and created a clickable blog roll on my blog roll page for you to check out. Visit some of these awesome blogs—you’ll be sure to find inspiration, laughter and some great new friends! Send them love and tell them I sent you!

Shopping with Sarah

Check out Swagger for some awesome monogrammed gifts. If I had it my way, everything I own would be monogrammed. :) I love the umbrellas. These is probably the sixth one I’ve posted, but on rainy days, a girl needs some inspiration to keep happy!

In the Southern Spotlight

Melissa at Sweet Tea ‘n Biscuits is spotlighting southern bloggers today. Hop on over and join the link up! Also check out our Southern Mommas group!

Great food and good friends!

About a month ago, my sisters and I had a yard sale and decided rather than splitting the money, we’d have a big cookout. Since everyone but Justin and I was at the beach for the 4th, it was nice to have a summertime get-together. Plus it was the perfect opportunity for Justin try out his new grill. He has worked tirelessly to upgrade this grill my dad gave him and make it into a pretty awesome smoker. Here it is:

 

We had such great food and a lot of our family and friends came over. The menu was jam-packed with lots of goodies. Here’s the menu:

     

Ribs with Justin’s brand on them. His mama got him the brand for Christmas from Williams & Sonoma.

 

Brisket to die for!

   

Boston butt, hot dogs, baked beans, yeast rolls, pasta salad, potato salad, deviled eggs, watermelon, seven layer salad, chocolate cake, strawberry lemonade…

…and THREE kinds of homemade ice cream: Reese cup, Baby Ruth and peach!

       

This was so fun and we hope to do it a few more times---especially when it cools down a bit here in South Georgia.

P.S. Those cute kids? That’s my niece Rivers holding the ribs up and my nephew Ben with that crazy cute smile. I can never ever snap pictures fast enough to get the oldest, Jake, in a shot. He was too cool for school hanging out with the older guys shooting skeet!

Peaches are IN!

I headed to the farmer’s market on Monday and picked up three boxes of peaches. I could eat peaches every day! Justin and I like to make peach ice cream or peach cobbler, so we peel, slice and add a bit of sugar to the peaches before we bag them up and freeze them. Mine came from Lane Southern Orchards, so if you’re passing by Exit 142 on Interstate 75 in Georgia, you should stop by. These have been the best peaches I have had in the past few years!

   

I plan on getting some smaller snack size bags for me to bring to work. This is just box one of the three. My hands were getting tired from all that peeling and cutting, so I decided to split them into three days.