My BFF

K and I have been friends since I was in Kindergarten. (Not to be topped by being friends with P since we could walk, but...). We celebrated K's baby boy's fourth birthday Saturday at a place similar to Chuck E. Cheese. The girls had a great time and I enjoyed hanging out with my buddy. Baby boy seemed to enjoy all of his presents and friends. He struggled with blowing out the candle but it was a priceless moment. Matt took several pictures attempting to capture the one where the candle actually went out.

After leaving the party, we visited with my grandparents at the hospital. My Papaw is still not doing well but the doctors intend to send him home this week, instead of the 25 day treatment in Bristol that he really needs. He is still on the ventilator most of the day and his home oxygen tanks do not go up as high as the hospitals so they are working on that issue. My Mamaw has had the stomach bug, as well as my uncle, Papaw, and now my husband is showing signs of it. I went through and sanitized everything yesterday so pray that the kids do not catch it. I am very appreciative and thankful for all of the prayers that everyone has been praying for my family.

Sweet Pea pulled one on me the other day. She first started with how I didn't want her when she was born. After babying her and convincing her that I prayed, wished, and prayed some more for her and all of the things that I done to take care of myself and her, she was finally convinced. Turns out, she just wanted some special attention from me. She is getting good at this manipulation thing.

On a side note, Congratulations Izzy and Elainia on your precious new baby! You all are going to be wonderful parents and I can't wait to see the first pictures of the little cutie.

More birthday parties are coming up this month and early next month so stay tuned. I have been doing a lot of shopping for all of the little ones. First, its wedding and then the babies. Before I know it, we will be celebrating their graduations.

Update on Papaw

My Papaw had been released from the hospital on Sunday and then returned on Tuesday. He is currently still in the hospital but not doing well right now. He has now been on antibiotics for about three weeks, has been throwing up, and is currently on a ventilator. At this time, it is unclear if he will be placed in another hospital for an extensive stay or if he will be released to go home, or possibly another option. Please keep my family in your prayers.

No loving

Sweet Pea insisted today that she should get to live with a friend of mine for a year. She decided that since I was opposed to that idea, she was no longer going to allow me to give her "lovin". Her comments: "Fine, if you won't let me go live with Kari, I will not let you love on me anymore. (a pause) You can only hold me and give me on lovin every half day; that's it." I explained to her that meant she would no longer be able to snuggle with me when she goes to sleep at night and she decided that she would make an exception to that rule.

prayers

I need all of the prayers in the world going up to Heaven right now. I was just informed that hospice has been offered for my Papaw and my Mamaw refused it (of course). My Papaw is really worn down and sick. I pray that when he does pass away, it is peaceful and I pray that my family will have the strength to cope with the loss, specifically my Mamaw who has been by his side for over 50 years and cared for him through better and worse, sickness and health, richer and poorer. My Papaw has been the only consistent, positive male role model in my life and it has been hard seeing him lose everything that makes him so unique. I appreciate everyone's love, support, and prayers.

Fishing Trip

Matt enjoying the ride. He isn't much of a fisherman and could only handle actually fishing for a short time. Sweet Pea caught a fish and Pumpkin Pie caught a large "minnow". I had to give her a hard time about how small her fish is.















The scenery was beautiful. The lake was a little more crowded than I enjoy but it is summertime. The lake didn't get bad until that evening, when the bass boats started coming out (and showed no regard for anyone else's safety).

We all had a wonderful time. However, I don't think that the girls will be asking to go back fishing anytime soon. It is something that they have a short attention span for.
This was also Baby L's first time on the boat and she done so well. The only part that she seemed to hate was the old, hot life jacket. We are so glad we were there for her first boat trip.

Dollywood

We took the girls to Dollywood today. They had such a good time. Sweet Pea has grown a little bit and was tall enough to ride the swings and Blazing Fury (a roller coaster- if you want to call it that) for the first time. Pumpkin Pie is the one who convinced Sweet Pea to ride the Blazing Fury, despite my attempts to inform her that she would not like it. After the first big hill, Sweet Pea sweetly makes the hurling sound and says, "I'm going to Puke." I cup my hand under her mouth, with my hand tilted slightly up to protect those in front of us and convince her that the ride is almost over and to please hold the puke in. She did manage the next two hills very well and did not puke (thank goodness). The couple in front of us where also very appreciative that she held it in. Once off the ride, she comments to her sister that she can't believe Pumpkin Pie convinced her to ride that roller coaster and she must be crazy. Sweet Pea insists that she will not ride the roller coaster again anytime soon. After riding all of the rides that they "had" to ride today, we went by Tanger and bought Pumpkin Pie's school shoes. The original plan was to play putt-putt or visit the aquarium. However, due to extreme dry heat, we did not play putt-putt and the traffic going to Gatlinburg was hideous. We opted to come home and make home made lemon ice cream instead. The girls (and Matt and I) have thoroughly enjoyed these past two days. We are looking forward to our fishing trip tomorrow as well.

BEAVER! The girls thought that it was funny to see a real beaver (thanks to Shannon and the Hoyt gang). So this picture is for you all.


I realized yesterday on how many issues I really have. I thought I would include some of them in this post and then post again just to update you on our day.

1. I held the door open for numerous people yesterday at the zoo. Out of all the people, only one group of two children and a teenager had the manners about them to say thank you. I did commend them on their manners and how appreciative I am to have at least one group to say thanks. For all of the others that I held the door open for, smiled at, or attempted to be nice to- please realize that you are not the only person in this world and if you would like to see more people showing courtesy to you, please remember to mind your own manners.

2. Because of my fear of germs, my children did not pet the sheep walking around the zoo, play in the sand, water, petting zoo, or fort area and will probably hate me for all of those things later.

3. As I sat in the plush movie theater seats (that are fabric), I could not help but fear, throughout the movie, that we were all going to come home with lice.

4. Today, as I stood in line at Dollywood, with my children, I became angered with others. Several times, someone would attempt to cut line, stating someone was holding their place or they needed to get back in line where they were. Please remember, if you get out of line, I DON'T CARE. My kids are having to wait just like everyone else and I find it very rude that you think someone can hold your place in line or that you can leave line and come right back to where you were. I do make the exception for those with disabilities or trading out parents for small children, but so does Dollywood. They have parent swap for rides, line cutting for those with significant impairments, etc...

5. I'm sure that I have many more but those are the main ones that have really pestered me. For those of you who were kind today (the family that was standing behind us to get the kids measured, the woman I spoke with while waiting on Matt and Pumpkin Pie at the roller coaster), thank you for being nice people.