Updates

Hello All!

It has certainly been a while hasn't it? I get so caught up in everyday life that I forget I have (an amazing 6) followers that want to read from me! :) I will share a few things from my life as of late, and hopefully you will enjoy reading it.

Recently it was Easter (well, over a month ago) and this was mine and Clay's first Easter together as a married couple. Growing up in the Ragan house we always had Easter baskets made for us each Easter morning by the Easter Bunny (Mom). My mom was always, and still is, so good at being festive during each holiday. This is one of the great qualities that I want to carry on from my mother, and so I told Clay that we were going to start this tradition in our new family. Easter morning came and out came the baskets filled with goodies and candies, but Clay had an extra surprise for me. I had not had the time, and quite frankly I did not think we had the money, to buy a new Easter dress this year. I was content with that though, and had already decided on a dress I already had to wear for the day. Well, Clay came out with this beautiful hot pink dress. He had bought it for me while we were on vacation in St. Augustine. Apparently he had Hanna go with him so that she could approve the dress for my taste in clothing before he bought it. This was just the sweetest thing ever and I was so overjoyed. He really surprised me and he knew it, because I could not stop smiling the whole day while I was wearing it.

                                               Our first Easter as Mr. and Mrs. Clay Dale!

Next on the list to discuss is baseball. Everytime we turned around we were headed to a baseball, softball, or little league game. Clay's siblings Johnny, Becca, Anna, and James all played baseball and softball this season, so that took up alot of our afternoons. They all played so great and have such natural talent. This was John Isaac's last season because he graduates this year. It was a bittersweet moment for all, especially for Johnny and Clay, because Clay was one of his coaches. Johhny is dating a super sweet girl named Katie who is also a senior this year. At both of their last games I snagged this picture of the two of them. So sweet!

Johnny and Katie at their last baseball/softball game.

Hanna also just started her new job at Zaxby's! She is so cute. I went over to see them on Saturday and she was so excited about starting on Monday. She had memorized all of the facts about Zaxby's, i.e. where they originated from, who the original owners were, when they first opened, I mean everything! If you have a question about Zaxby's, ask Hanna. I'm sure she'll know the answer to it.She has such a sweet and bubbly personality, I know she will do great working there.  

                                                          Hanna getting ready for work!

Another BIG thing on my list of accomplished things is this semester of college! I was in a total of four classes this semester, with a final grade of A, B+, B+, and B. Last semester I got all A's, so I was a little dissapointed in myself to get 3 B's, but I keep telling myself that I have a job, I'm doing college, and I have a husband, so I'm doing alright. :) (Justification? Not hardly, but at least it makes me feel better!)

The last thing I will say is about my Grandma. I see her everywhere I turn, quite literally. Ever since she passed away, my mom and aunts have been going through her things in her home trying to clean it out. Every time they see something that someone might need they just give it to them, because they would rather someone in the family have it versus it ending up at a garage sale or thrift store. Because of this I have received multiple things from Grandma's home including yellow curtains, vases, an angel or two, and the most important thing to me, her sewing machine. I have caught myself telling Clay when he asks where it came from that "Grandma gave it to me". Although that isn't completely true, I really do think that in some weird way she did. If she were alive, she would say that she would want someone she loves to have it and use it. The reason why her sewing machine was so important to me was because she taught me how to sew using the same one. When I first started going to college, and did not have a job yet, I went to her house everyday that I didn't have school and she helped me learn. Eventually she helped me sew my own apron. It took a few months, but I could say at the end that I helped sew it, and I learned valuable sewing skills from that. When my aunts told me that I could have Grandm'a sewing machine I was so overjoyed. I've already stitched Clay's shirt up, made an apron, and a banner that I hang up on my mantle in the Spring. She was so crafty and I am glad that I was able to spend that time with her before she passed away. Those are memories that we will never forget.

       This is my Grandma, one of the most Godly women I will ever have the pleasure of knowing.

Well, that is it for today. I hope you enjoyed my updates.

Until Next Time,

Tiffany

Life

Hello All,

What a couple of weeks it has been! Full of sickness, health, death, life, sorrow, and joy.  On Monday night I went to bed feeling a little weak, and I woke up on Tuesday to find myself with a high fever and chills. Needless to say, I missed three days of work that week, I eventually went to the doctor on Thursday, and found out I had strep throat. My Mom brought us potato soup one night, Mrs. Melanie made us a chicken casserole another night, and Mom came back again to bring me stuff to make smoothies and such. I lost 5 pounds that week (which is alot for me), so I think they were worried about me. Don't worry though, I've gained it all back. It was so sweet of them to bring us food while I was sick, and I know Clay appreciated it too. :)

The next week, which is the week we are in right now, we started it off on a good note. I went to college to take a mid-term and went to Bible Study that night with Katie and Rachel (my normal Monday routine). Clay put in an estimate for a bid that could potentially grow our business tremendously! On Tuesday I made it in my mind to try out a crock pot recipe, something I had never experimented with before. I found the recipe on my favorite website (Pinterest) and decided to give it a try. I got up early in the morning and browned the meat, put all of the ingredients in the crock pot, and let it cook on low for 8 hours. The taco soup turned out amazing, and I think Clay was genuinely impressed with me (oh, but it was so easy!). We woke up to the phone ringing on Wednesday morning. We had gotten a call from our neighbor saying we needed to come outside, and quick. It turned out that someone had ran over my little Redbone Coonhound puppy, Lady. She was so small that it killed her instantly. We had just gotten her after Christmas, and because Crimson was Clay's dog, we had decided that Lady would be mine. I named her and bought her a pink collar....it was just the neatest thing for both of us to have a dog of our own. Clay told me not to come outside, because he didn't think I could handle it. Well, I didn't listen, and he was right, I couldn't handle it. I started bawling like a child would  have. The whole day I was depressed. Can you believe that the person who ran her over didn't even tell us! Our neighbor told us what kind of truck he was driving, but he didn't even have the guts to tell us! The nerve of some people!
Anyways, this is Lady with Crimson.

She was so cute, wasn't she?
Well, on with the week. Thursday we both worked, Clay coached baseball after working all day, and then we both went to David and Liz's house to spend time together and hold baby Parker! He is so adorable. That leads us to today, Friday. I am at home giving it a much needed make-over, and Clay is out working. Next week is spring break for me at college, so I get a break from studying for a whole week. HALLELUJAH! You can only do school for so long before it starts feeling mundane.

I hope your days have been filled with love and joy recently.

Until Next Time,
Tiffany

Long time past.

Hello All,
It has been way too long since I've been on here. Life goes by so fast, and before you know it you are caught up in the same-ole-same-ole rat race of life that everyone else is in. Since Christmas has passed, I have started back to school with a full load of classes as well as started my new job! I work for a company called RamJack answering the phone and doing paperwork three days a week. I like it, and the money, so it is a good fit for me. I haven't  quite gotten the hang of doing school work, going to work, and getting all of the housework done just yet, but I am getting there. Going from having all the time in the world on your hands to having to prioritize your time is a definite change. We also got a new puppy after Christmas, and her name is Lady! She is a redbone coonhound just like Crimson is, and our hopes are to breed them in a few years and have puppies! They are both so adorable and Clay and I just love them to death!

Here are some other new things that have happened:

I got a letter in the mail about a week ago that told me I had made the Dean's List at school! I was so happy about that, and knew Clay would be proud of me (he is). :)

We had our first experience with a mouse about a month ago, and good gracious, I bet Clay has never heard me scream that high-pitched before. I hate mice, and just the thought of living in the same house with them drive me mad. You can only imagine that it would make perfect sense for me to go to Walmart and buy every mouse trap possible to catch them, right? :) I bought sticky pads, and the original mouse traps, and the whole shabang. We caught the culprit, but for a long time I made Clay walk with me into every room with me in fear that one would run up my leg!

It is nearing the end of January and my Christmas decorations are still up. I can't hardly handle taking them down because they bring me such joy to look at!

Well, for only a few months, that is a lot of new things happeneing here at the Dale household. Tonight the youth leader at our church asked us to be the Iron Chef Judges for the youth group game. Every year the youth group gets together, they all bring $5, and they get split up into two teams. They then go to Winn-Dixie to buy their ingredients, then come back to the church to make their dishes and get judged. There is only one kicker.....and that is, that there is a secret ingredient they have to use in the dish they make. Last year the secret ingredient was bacon, so I am very excited to see what this year will be.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you spent it with the ones that you love.

Until Next Time,
Tiffany

Decorating

Hello All,
We have been SO busy over the past week with Thanksgiving last weekend, and John-Isaac's and Rebecca's basketball games this week, and finally us putting up our Christmas tree! Woo-hoo! Let's start with the first event on the list, Thanksgiving. We ate SO MUCH food it is probably sinful. In all, Clay and I ate seven Thanksgiving dinners on our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple. Holidays are major work, but it is worth it because you get to see all of your "kin" and have much needed fellowship. I made four pies for Thanksgiving, two peanut butter and two pecan pies. They looked great, and I must admit they tasted awesome too!

We went to two basketball games this week, Johnny and Becca both had games and they both played awesome. They were made for this sport. Becca, I think, is the youngest starter on the girls team, and Johnny can jump so high that it is actually shocking. They both did great, and Clay and I enjoy going to watch them play every time.

We finally put up the Christmas tree and decorations this week! I know that it is only December 1st, but if you knew me, you would know that I am a fanatic about Christmas. If I were allowed, I would probably keep it up year round and play all of the Christmas carols year round as well. Clay was so sweet to help me put it up and get in the Christmas spirit. I have a few photos to share with you all.

Until Next Time,
Tiffany

P.S. I wrote this post before Christmas, but for some reason, I did not post it. I wanted to post it now so that I could share the pictures with you and you could see how we felt at Christmas time!

I am (trying to be) Crafty

Hello All!
I know you are all getting excited about the holidays. Thanksgiving is this Thursday! Can you believe time has gone by so fast? It is unbelievable. And Christmas is right around the corner. I can't wait! Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year. Everyone is in a happy mood, the women are baking, the men are cooking the turkey and greens, and the children all sit around the Christmas tree drooling over their presents. However, the BEST part about Christmas is the fact that Jesus was born into this world to one day save us from our sins. How amazing and wonderful. That act of love is the best gift that anyone could give. No one could give a better present than that, it is unbeatable. Sometimes I just sit and think about how many people really would give up their life for me, or take the blame for the wrongs that I had done. There aren't that many, I can tell you that. Not because people don't love me, but because that is a hefty price to pay. Would you give up your life for just anybody, or take the blame for killing someone when you had never sinned in your life? Good gracious, no. But Jesus would, and did. How awesome and humbling.

Anyways, I've quit preaching and gone to meddling. The reason I blogged today was to show you my wonderful craft I have FINALLY fininshed! I know you have been anxiously awaiting the results, right? [Ok, you probably haven't, but you could at least pretend! :) ] A while back I went to Michael's Craft Store, which by the way is my favorite store ever, and I bought some materials. Here they are:

So, what did you think I was making? ........

A beautiful wreath!

I spent SOOO much time on this thing.

First, I wrapped the wooden wreath with cream colored yarn, which took an eternity. If this inspires you to do your own wreath, just let this be your warning. I started and stopped probably four different days before the cream yarn was finished. The rest after that was pretty easy. I wrapped brown yarn in different areas and then attached the flower pin and green buttons in different areas using a needle and some thread. I am so proud of it, it is quite comical actually. I guess it would mean more to you if you did one yourself, because then you would know how much time I spent on it. But in any case, this is the last wreath I will be doing for a while.

 I loved making this wreath. 

 I'm glad I am done!!!

Have a great Thanksgiving Day, and remember to give all thanks to Him.

Until Next Time,

Tiffany

Luggage

Hello All!
This weather we have been having recently is wonderful. Don't you agree? The only thing I could complain about is it being bipolar and going from hot to cold every other day, but I guess I am used to it, being a Floridian and all. Anyways, I've been sick for almost two weeks now because of this weather change. I stay up all night coughing and I don't like to go out much because I don't want to hack all over people and get dirty looks. So far I have spread my germs to my side of the family as well as Clay's, so I'm sure you all would appreciate me more if I were to stay home until God heals me or I go to the doctor.
I was watching the t.v. the other day and an advertisement came on for Macy's, the "BIG ONE DAY SALE" it screamed, and being the shopper/savvy saver that I am, I knew I had to go. There were two reasons why I had to go: 1) because Clay and I got gift cards to Macy's for our wedding and haven't used them all up yet, and 2) because they were offering a 4 piece luggage set worth $160 for only $39.99! (I know, I'm a sucker....they make those ads for people like me). You also have to understand though, that the only "luggage" Clay and I own are the cloth zebra tote bags that Clay gave me for Christmas last year. They hold about two outfits each, and there are only two. So, I decided I would go to Macy's with the gift cards in one hand and 5 cough drops in the other. When I got there I only had one hour to shop around before the big sale went off, so I hurriedly walked around the store looking for the luggage sets. Of course they didn't come in the traditional black, only hunter green and baby blue, so I opted for the hunter green and on my way I went to the cash register. As I was trying to decide between the two colors though, something amazing happened. Something that is dying off in the world, someone did an act of kindness. There had been a woman watching me try to decide between the two luggage sets and she came up to me and told me that she had an extra, and that if I wanted it that I could have it for myself. It was a coupon for $10 off of a $25 purchase or more. I was thinking to myself "could it really get much better than this?" but it turned out that I couldn't use that coupon with my luggage set. So I went ahead and bought Clay a Christmas present so I could take advantage of the $10 off. How neat is that? I felt like a million bucks walking around with that coupon in my hand. :)
The funny thing is though, that a few months before this happened Hanna and I were shopping in the same mall at Aeropostale. Hanna had printed off two all day passes for 50% off your entire purchase (yes, we are both savvy shoppers). We made our purchases and started walking out the door when we both thought about the same idea, if we weren't going to be using the all day pass anymore we might as well pass it along to somebody else. So we did, we found a woman that was shopping with her son and gave her the coupon. She looked at us like we were crazy, as if she didn't believe it would work if she used it, but smiled and said thank-you and took it anyways. I guess she was just in shock that someone would be nice. It is funny how things come around though, isn't it? Good deeds never go unnoticed, and God always outgives us. We can never outgive God, because He will always give us more blessings in return.
Well, I must get off to call the doctor and make an appointment. I think I have suffered enough, and so has Clay, he hasn't slept in two weeks because of me coughing all night! I hope you all have a great day today and tomorrow and a wonderful weekend. Be safe and stay healthy.
Until next time,
Tiffany

Our First (Mis)Adventure

Hello All,
It has been beautiful weather lately, hasn't it? Last week we took our puppy to his first vet visit. We were so excited because it meant we would be taking him in on his new leash we just bought and we were going to show off to the Vet by showing her all of Crimson's new tricks we (Clay) had taught him. Well, we get there and of course everybody is ooh-ing and ahh-ing over our puppy. He is so cute that the reactions almost come natural to people. Anyways, we fill out our necessary paperwork and sit down to wait on the Vet. Meanwhile, Clay is already talking to the receptionist about all of the cool tricks we have taught.
(Side note: The way we taught Crimson to do all of the cool things he does is by feeding him balogna and ham. I thought this was a bad idea from the start, mainly because it left me with no lunch meat, so I suggested to Clay to feed Crimson carrots when he does something good. Clay laughed at the mere mention of it, and I guess Crimson felt the same way because he spit out the first carrot I gave him, so back to the balogna we went.)
Ok, so we are both talking to the receptionist now about Crimson's great ability to learn tricks and Clay pipes up and says "Yeah, our dog must LOVE balogna because he'll do almost anything for it. That's what we give him as treats." Now let me just tell you what happened next, well, I wish I would have had a video recorder for her reaction. She drew in a deep breath and her eyes got as big as two oranges. She said "Oh my gosh! Please tell me you aren't feeding that poor puppy balogna! That is horrible for him...one of the worst things you could feed a puppy is balogna because it has pork in it." This is when Clay starts telling her that we are newlyweds, and we don't just have doggy treats laying around the house, so we had to resort to something that we eat ("human food" is what she calls it, which apparently is a sin in a veterinarians office to give a puppy "human food"). So she comes up with a solution, and says "well, if you are absolutely going to give him human food, the best food you could give him would be carrots". Need I say more? Honestly? Thank you God, You are so good! For once in my life I am right about something, and I didn't even know it at the time! I didn't really rub it in though, because Clay's face got all red and I could tell he was embarrassed. It was so funny though, and as soon as she said "carrots" we both busted out laughing. I'm sure they all thought we were idiots in that office, because they sent us home with a complimentary (yeah, right) bag of dog food, dog treats, and a fluffy dog toy that squeaks when you squeeze it. I guess they thought we were mistreating our dog because we fed him balogna. We just didn't know any better, but the experience was hilarious to say the least.

                                                        Our first Vet visit with Crimson
In other news in our lives, I would ask you all to pray for my Granny. She has been in the hospital since Monday and we hope she can come home soon. She is having multiple tests done on her to see what the problem is, but until then I would ask that you keep her in your prayers. She definitely needs some uplifting. Also today, I have an exam in Microeconomics that is worth 57% of my grade. Yeah, 57%. So it kind of stresses me out, which means now I need to get off of the computer and start studying before the exam. I hope you all have a great day and God bless you.
Until Next Time,
Tiffany