Wow, a month...what did you miss?!

I guess you could say we continue to live our hectic lives. However, it hasn't felt as hectic as usual, maybe I am actually relaxing a little more. That would be funny, wouldn't it!
For my birthday, Matt got me a new Coach purse and a scrapbook drawer organizer thingamabob (that is an actual word right). One of my best friend's got me a M&M lunchbox and a plant, which I am infamous for killing. My other best friend got me a Pandora bracelet and several charms. I have to say I am one spoiled chick!
I can't remember if I shared what I got for Mother's day so you get to hear it again possibly-the first four seasons of Ghost Whisperer. I know the show can be a bit cheesy but I happen to like it.
The girls and I got Matt a Blu-ray player and a leaf blower for Father's day. Tell me how horrible that is- we don't have a single tree in our yard but he wanted a leaf blower so he doesn't have to sweep the grass from the sidewalk after I mow. Yes, you heard me...I have been mowing the whole yard all by myself. Matt still does the weed eating but I am woman, hear me roar!
We have spent a lot of time hanging out with friends and enjoying the summer. We have spent several occasions at our friend's neighborhood pool and we of course have a blow up pool in our back yard. It has also been so hot outside that we have spent quite a bit of time inside reading, hanging out, and watching television. One could say that television could rot the brain but I figure mine was probably rotten to begin with.
We visited Matt's grandparents in Asheville for his grandmother's 90th birthday! She looks good to be so old! It was good visiting with his family too. Unfortunately, my fibromyalgia was killing me so I wasn't in the best mood for traveling. The girls are counting down the weeks until school starts back and we are already getting psyched about school supplies, which ranks really high up with Christmas stuff for me! We have plans for the next few weeks so I hope that the girls enjoy their last few weeks of freedom.
Matt and I have also recently decided that if we continue to wait around for extra money to fall from the sky, we are never going to get to Disney world. So we are attempting to plan an all expense charged trip for the spring. I don't want the girls to be so old that they don't enjoy it. If you have planning to tips to share, that would be great! Or if you would like to donate to our "Save our sanity- give us a vacation fund" , contact me and I will tell you how. Just joking!
On another note- I put off ever watching Twilight because I thought that it was a teeny bopper thing and didn't want to go there. I finally broke down and watched it and I am now addicted. I read all four books in 8 days! I had to wait on the additional Bree Tanner book because it was out at the library or it would have been completed in there too. Then I had to watch New Moon and for my anniversary, Matt took me to see Eclipse. Matt has now decided to listen to all of the books via audio book, because he is not as big of a reader as I am. I think it is cute that my husband actually enjoys it as much as I do.
My papaw has been in the hospital for the past 2 1/2 weeks and hopefully will get to come home this week. Keep him and my mamaw in your prayers. It seems that antibiotics just don't fight his infections very well and he seems to stay sick.
So now you have the past few weeks in a condensed version. I haven't been much into the pictures lately and what I do have includes the kids so sorry that I don't have to much to share at this time. I will try to get some to share soon. Hope everyone else is enjoying summer as much as we are.
We took the girls to my mom's to ride the miniature horses.

Matt with one of his Father's Day Presents.

Bailey climbed into the clothes that just came out of the dryer!

What a nice short vacation

I am blog illiterate so i am struggling with the photo thing. Typically, it shows my pictures and I can type under them but this time, it is showing the HTML junk so I will just have to give you a run down. All of the pictures are from Sunday afternoon and not in any particular order but I feel confident that you will be able to figure them out...1.J wearing his "Indiana Jones" hat, 2. The ducks as Matt was chasing them, 3. Matt fishing, 4. J having to bait Matt's hook because he is scared of worms :), 5. L taking a fish off the hook (for Matt)- you have to love a pretty woman who isn't afraid of worms or fish, 6. large mouth bass that J caught, and 7. Skeeter in her dress. Cassie was still at the house or I would have a picture of her in a dress as well.

I guess we will start at the beginning of our four day stay-cation...
Friday:
Matt's friend, Cody came over to hang out. The girls played on the slip-n-slide and a wet trampoline. I became a little more than nervous about the trampoline so it didn't last too long. After running around in the backyard all evening, Matt, Cody, and I watched "Alice in Wonderland" and Matt and Cody played video games. It was a nice start to a vacation.

Saturday:
We filled up the kiddie pool and played outside most of the morning. Late afternoon, we joined our best friends at their community pool, swam, ate pizza and cupcakes, swam some more and finally headed home around 8:30. After giving the girls their showers, we pretty much crashed.

Sunday:
We enjoyed a nice morning at church and then headed to Kentucky to visit my best friend from college and Matt's best friend from forever. The kids went swimming in their pool (which Matt remembers swimming in when he was a kid, it's just moved locations), then to the jacuzzi, ate some pizza, and headed out for more fun. The kids got to ride on the Rhino (a 4x4 utility vehicle). They chased the ducks, played with the dogs, and fed the goat. They went fishing in the pond and Pumpkin Pie caught the first fish, which happened to be the biggest catfish caught from it. Sweet Pea had to of course fall in the mud and get her behind filthy. Bugaboo (J and L's daughter) is a hoot...she was kissing the fish, trying to stick them in her daddy's pocket, and even tried to feed one the worms that they were using for bait (which makes sense). They threw back all of the fish that they caught but Bugaboo had to play with each one for a minute before she would allow it to be thrown back. J gave each of the girls time in the tree swing which essentially sent each child propelling about 15 feet into the air with tree limbs all above them. At least they were strapped in and he was willing to do the same with his own child. The kids loved it. J made a camp fire and the kids got to roast marshmallows and eat smores, although my girls had to be difficult. Pumpkin Pie only wanted graham crackers and chocolate bar. Sweet Pea only wanted an unroasted marshmallow with chocolate bar in between. We relaxed for a while and the girls rode around on the power-wheels and took turns for trips on the Rhino again. We left Kentucky around 8:30 so it was nearly 10 when we got home, bathed the girls, and crashed again.

Monday:
We joined our best friends at Cracker Barrel for a delicious breakfast before heading over to Dollywood. We hung out there for several hours and enjoyed many rides with the kids, along with my favorite thing about Dollywood- frozen cherry lemonade. After Dollywood, we headed to Tanger so I could pick up a present for a friend's son's party in two weeks and we headed home. After we got home, we mowed the yard and cleaned off some outside toys to get rid of. You can imagine by that point, I was exhausted.

Tuesday:
We got up today and cleaned up, then headed out to take some pictures of the girls since I haven't taken any in a while. Unfortunately, the sun was so bright and the day was so muggy that the girls were not into it and I only got a few good shots. We ran a couple of errands and headed back home for another afternoon of playing outside. It was very noticeable that the kids are completely run down and looking forward to returning to their normal schedule tomorrow. I have definitely enjoyed the time with the kids and with some great friends. My body couldn't handle too much more of this vacation stuff.

Our weekends are full for the next four weeks at least. I get to spend next weekend with my best friend and we have a birthday party each of the following weekends to attend. I will also be celebrating my 8th wedding anniversary in a few more weeks. More about that when the time comes. I also have to fit Father's day in two weeks as well. Hmmm, where is the time to sleep and rest!

I guess I could fill you in on other small things

Now that you have heard my tragedy, I can tell you about the rest of my life. Mother's day was very nice although I don't have any pictures. The family gave me the first four seasons of "Ghost Whisperer" and a Donkey Webkinz (because it fits their dad) and Matt picked wild daisies for me. We visited my mamaw and mom on Saturday, along with my sister, her boyfriend, and my nephew. I have been absolutely swamped at work and following two bouts of kidney stones, I feel a little more functional now. I did see a urologist this week and one of the stones is being analyzed. I also was asked to do a urine collection, which just sounds completely gross. It is just what it sounds-collect all of your urine for a full 24 hours. I am putting that off for now! My fibromyalgia has been a little difficult these past few weeks but I think it is a combination of the heavy work load, stress, and general fatigue from life. My baby girl graduated from Kindergarten this past week and it seems that her life is flying past me. It seems like it was just yesterday that she was laying in the floor jabbering with me and laughing. Now her jabbers are to back talk! She no longer laughs with me but at me! Both girls got an American Girl doll-Lanie and Sweet Pea also got a new bicycle, since she has outgrown her other one. My girls are very spoiled but I am so lucky to be able to spoil them and for that I am very thankful. This weekend, we kept my nephew and spent our time lounging around the house since it was so humid (before the storms) and then it stormed the remainder of the time. Plus we had the lice issue to deal with. My mom and her boyfriend bought two miniature horses this weekend so the kids wanted to see them. The mom should be broke within a week and the girls are already plotting how they are going to get back down there soon to go riding the horses. The mom horse is also expecting so I am unsure of how long until there will be a third horse to enjoy. Sweet Pea has been asking for a real horse for a while now so I guess she gets her wish. I just hope they don't end up getting her a real pig too. I am sure that I have left a few things out that were probably pretty important but I am human and I have work to do and I have to prepare for court this week. I would love to share pictures but sadly, my camera is collecting dust because I have been so scatterbrained and have honestly missed some wonderful photo opportunities.

My Worst Nightmare

Of all the things that I could dread in this world, LICE would have to be on the top of my list. I have made it this far in life and never had to truly endure the experience. My brother caught lice when he was in Kindergarten but I was only a young teenager and did not truly understand the experience. Pumpkin Pie complained of her head itching Saturday and her dad (being all manly) checked her head to say that she just wasn't washing her hair well. Later, when I caught wind of this previous conversation, knew that I needed to check for myself. I was horrified at the sight I found. We spent the remainder of the evening scrubbing everyone's hair with the special shampoo (although no one else was found to have anything) and then washing bedding, vacuuming, spraying items down with the special spray, etc...I didn't get to bed until after 1:00 a.m. I had nightmares all night and resumed my "cleaning" this morning. I have gone through everyone's head again and cleaned even more. I don't know that I will ever sleep well again. This has been a very tragic experience for me, even though it seems small to most others. Let's hope that lice never enter my house again. By the way, I only found a total of five bugs on her head, which I am sure is not a lot but was way too much for me to handle.

I wish I could come up with catchy titles!

It is hard trying to come up with a catchy title each time I post. Plus, I try to include so much into each blog but also keep them short so they cover quite a bit of our week.
Last weekend, we took a trip to Kentucky for a birthday party. We had a really good time just hanging out with Matt's cousin and family. I always enjoy hanging out with Val. Saturday, we made some stops on the way home to take pictures for Pumpkin Pie's Tennessee Notebook (School project). We visited Cumberland Gap, Pinnacle Overlook, and Lincoln Memorial University and Museum. I was exhausted by the time we arrived home, particularly because we stayed up so late the night before laughing and talking.
Monday, we took the girls to a nearby parking lot to ride bicycles. Pumpkin Pie is the only child I know her age that cannot ride a bike without training wheels. We have pushed and pushed to try to get her to the point where she will/can ride without training wheels and she insists that she could not do it. We took the training wheels off several years ago but she would not brave the ride so we told her it had to be done this week. She actually started to get the hang of keeping the bike up and going straight after about an hour of efforts. Her legs are still bruised up now though. She did not get the hang of using the brakes and kept putting her feet down to stop so the pedals caught her legs. Add that on top of all of the wrecks she had and she looks like she is black and blue with a little bit of peach mixed in. We are going to have to purchase a new bicycle for Sweet Pea though. She is riding Pumpkin Pie's first bicycle (which she received at 2 years old) and it is quite small for Sweet Pea. We have been looking but haven't found just the right bike yet.
The rest of the week was busy as usual with typical things going on. Thursday, I came down with something that I will assume is allergies so it put a damper on the week. Saturday, we went to Dollywood. Matt's mom, my sister, nephew, sister's boyfriend, mom, her boyfriend, and his two kids, along with us packed in to Dollywood around 10:00. We had a really good time and got a few cute pictures. I didn't take the big camera because it was supposed to drizzle all morning (which it did) and I didn't want to risk ruining the big camera. I have to say that I enjoy being with my extended family more now than I ever has. I don't always approve of every decision that my mom makes but we do seem to get along better now than we did in the past years so it was good to get to enjoy things with her being a mamaw that I would have loved to have enjoyed when I was a kid. It was good for the girls to have both of their mamaws with them and get lots of love and attention. Any time that I can get with my sister and nephew is also a definite bonus.
Last night, Sweet Pea threw up several times but seems to be all right today. I continue to struggle with these allergies, which has really knocked me for a loop. On top of that, Matt is heading to Wisconsin for work for a couple of days. I hope the girls can survive me!

Blogger is acting up AGAIN so I will just explain the pictures. One is of Tad and Val from the birthday party, 2. Josh (sister's boyfriend) and me giving him a hard time about looking for a job, 3. Josh and his pink elephant, 4. Picture of me and Matt at the arboretum (Pumpkin Pie took the picture).

Happy Easter

I would welcome any kind of break right now. .. I had so many things planned that I wanted to do and so few of them actually got accomplished. Matt drove his mom home Friday and assisted with a few loose strings to the loss of his dad. Friday afternoon, we intended to run a couple of errands because I had not finished getting the items for the girls Easter baskets. Those plans changed when the transmission light came on in our vehicle. An hour and a half and $110 later, we headed home because we were tired and hungry and traffic was horrible. Luckily, the whole transmission wasn’t going out; it was just the solenoid switches that had to be replaced. It was still frustrating since we just had the tires and the rim replaced.
Saturday, we had an Easter egg hunt at church and the girls best friends were able to join in the fun. We went to the arboretum after the egg hunt so I could take some pictures of the girls but the girls were not in a picture taking kind of mood. We headed on out to run the errands that I didn’t get to Friday night only to find out that the one thing that Pumpkin Pie really wanted was no were to be found. I knew I should have bought it when I first saw it. We headed back home to put stuff away and then met up with some of Matt’s family for dinner at Red Lobster. It was very yummy but the service was very poor last night.
Sunday was a wonderful morning. None of us argued and the girls got ready for church without a major argument. They looked so sweet in their Easter dresses and were actually well-behaved. After church, we headed to Kingsport to visit my Papaw who has been in the hospital since early on in the week. However, due to shuffling around (moved from one hospital to another and then from one floor to another) we had been unable to visit with him until he was settled in somewhere. He immediately started crying when we came in, which would typically be out of character for him. He seemed to be feeling better but would go off on tangents while talking and you had to figure out where he was going with a thought or what he was actually talking about. That was pretty difficult to do and it seemed to aggravate him if you didn’t know immediately what he was thinking. I guess I will have to sharpen my mind reading skills.
So, we planned to play outside more, take the kids to ride their bicycles and dye Easter eggs. Those things were not accomplished. I did eventually find Pumpkin Pie’s cherished item (Peace Puppy from Webkinz) and the Easter gifts were a hit. I also received a super awesome gift from Matt…I got an ice chopper and Cherry slushie flavoring. To explain why that is wonderful- I love, love, love frozen Cherry lemonade from Dollywood but as you may know, it is not available year round. So, with Matt’s purchase, I am now able to freeze my own lemonade, crush the ice, and add however much Cherry flavoring I want to this stuff and live the life of luxury with my one passion of the summer. I will just have to stock up on Cherry flavoring while I can find it.
Next week proves to be even busier than this week…music lessons, trip to Pigeon Forge to buy our season passes for Dollywood (even though we won’t have time to go in and enjoy the park this week), doctor’s appointments, birthday party, and a trip to Matt’s mom’s to help her get some stuff cleaned out of the house. I am looking forward to a break soon.

Sweet Pea's Funnies

So Sweet Pea has been on a roll lately…
Sweet Pea woke up in a grumpy mood and Matt commented that she woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Sweet Pea replied, “I can’t wake up any other way. My bed is against the wall.”
Sweet Pea had to be strongly encouraged to get ready for school one day last week and she was quite a little terror about it. As she reluctantly went to the bathroom to get ready, she stated, “Mommy, God says to not terrorize your children.” I did not respond but she started moving a little faster after the look I gave her.