Seven Things....

I've been tagged by Donnie.

1. I have no patience and see none in my future. I've chosen not to pray about it, because God will just give me more things to work on my patience with!!

2. I have a little OCD with cleaning. I love to vacuum and have a clean house. My closets on the other hand are never clean and orderly. SO don't look!!!!

3. I am not a morning person and I don't want to even talk before 11:00.

4. I have the best job in the world. And I love to work.

5. I can NOT decorate (on first try) it takes several $$ and looks before I can finally get something to look right.

6. I am frugal but think nothing about spending $350 for my best friend and I to get facials and massages:) :) Hey, it's x-mas and birthdays rolled together plus were worth it!!

7. I am blessed beyond measure.

Thanksgiving week

I decided a week before Thanksgiving to have Cary paint the living room, hall and dining room. I don't know who had the harder job. Cary painting or me having to pick out the color. I went through several sample cans at $4.99 ea. But at least I got the colors that I absolutely LOVE!!!

Before (with paint samples on wall):

After:

We had 3 different Thanksgiving lunch/dinners at our house.

Lollar/Hailey family:




Campbell/Boles family:

Pa Ray with the grands:

Things I need to blog about.......

1.) My painting fiasco. -- After painting the entire living room and deciding I didn't like it and purchasing 8 sample paints to try, I finally found a winner.

2.) Madison turning 11 and her sleepover-- if for no other reason than to remind me not to this again.

3.) My work schedule the week of Madison's sleepover.-- Getting no sleep the week of Madison's sleepover + 8 girls + working on Saturday= Not happy Mom!!

4.) The funny things Grant says. -- Last night as Cary was painting he asked me if our feet were the only feet that had been in our house. Meaning did anyone ever live in our house before us. I assured him our feet were the only ones that ever owned our house!! Then at 8:30 he announced that it was thirty eight o'clock!! Oh, and he calls the Dining room the diamond room??

5.) Preparing for job interviews.-- Total stress.

6.) Preparing to host 3 Thanksgiving dinners at my house next Thurs and Fri.

7.) Finding out at Grant's eye doctors appointment that his eyes are greatly improving and that he will eventually be out of glasses.-- His eyes have changed so much over the last year that his glasses were too strong causing him not to be able to see distance. This could explain the many papers sent home saying all he had to do was copy it from the board and he didn't. Maybe he couldn't see the board!!

It's Been a While....

Since I've blogged so I will try to remember all that has
happened in the last month. During Fall break we went to
the magical place for 7 days. This was the first time the kids or I have have ever been. Cary had been one time when he was around 3. I studied up on all the ins and outs of Disney and truly feel like we definitely got to do everything we set out to do.













Our neighbors and friends(Chris, Shelia, Logan and Lucas) were also planning a trip the same time we were. They called and we met up with them on Tuesday and was able to spend the day with them. The last/only time Cary had been to DW was with Chris. Which I didn't know until Tuesday. Logan is in Grant's class and they are really good friends.














We ate and ate and ate. We were on the dining plan so we didn't go hungry or broke. This was a snack. It's a mickey mouse shaped rice crispy treat dipped in milk chocolate rolled in crushed Reece's peanut butter cups and then drizzled in white chocolate. It was huge. I took one bite and made Cary go back in and have another one made!!! YUM YUM!! I didn't eat it all at once-it took me 3 days to eat. We also tried many TS(table service) restaurants. One was Whispering Canyon. We had the all-you-can eat skillet. In the picture it looks like it was Madison's plate but we were all dipping from it. We liked this restaurant so much we went back for breakfast one day and had the same all-you-can eat skillet
with breakfast foods. One night we had dinner at
the Sci-Fi drive in. It was just like a drive in. You were seated in cars that had tables. We also enjoyed Chef Mickey's which was a buffet. Grant ended up getting sick this night so it was an adventure trying to get back to the hotel via buses with a sick child. I made Cary hold him on the bus with a Disney bag to throw up in while Madison and I stood at the front and pretended not to know them!!!

We took lots of time trying on hats that we never bought!!

We rode lots of rides. Some that scared the kids to death. I love this picture of Madison and Grant covering up in the

front row. Madison totally got scared on the Tower of Terror which is an elevator ride that drops you unexpectedly. She rode it once or twice but after that she wasn't having any part of it. So she stayed in the gift shop while we rode. All in all it was a great trip. We did lots of walking and very little sleeping. But we still got along great. Grant would have never made it without the stroller. It only rained on us once or twice for a very short period. The dining plan was the best way to go. In total we had 24 table service meals, 24 snacks, and 24 counter service meals. We used each and every credit although on the last day we were so full we really didn't want to use the last counter service meals but we did ;) The kids are definitely ready to go back. I don't know if we will make it back next year or not but we will definitely go back.

Relaxed~Renewed~Refreshed

That pretty much sums up my weekend. We spent Fri-Sun camping. This was my first time camping in a tent, and much to my surprise I really enjoyed it.

















We had several people comment on our $48 tent!!













It was so hot the dog even got in the water. I have never seen him do this before.













































Madison & Grant had lots of fun playing in the fire pit. Cary cooked us a delicious breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Yum!!

Grant practicing his hand stand or cartwheel. I can't remember which one!!!

Back To Normal!!!

At least for now, that is how I feel. The past couple of months at work has totally threw my schedule off. I need structure and daily routines to keep my self in sync. From June-Aug I was filling in at another office. It was more work but I did enjoy the change of pace from my office. The thing that threw me off was the hours. I was going in an hour later and getting off an hour and 45 mins later than my office. This was all summer long, so I became a little bummed over not getting home until after 5 each day. Needless to say by Aug I was more than ready to go back to my office and my daily routine.

But that didn't happen. Sometime in July I was asked to go to another office for another assignment. I was willing to go but really wasn't looking forward to another change in schedule. That's when I found out the office that I ultimately want to go to was going to be available. The Lady that worked there, Freddy Poindexter, had just found out she had lung cancer and since she was going to retire in Dec anyways she decided to go on sick leave until Dec. She has known for several years that I ultimately wanted her office. She asked for me to be placed in her office. I absolutely love this office. It's really not much different from my office, other than it's 3 miles from my house!!!! I have never worked so close to home before. I can even eat lunch with Madison since her school is only 5 miles from my work.

It has took several weeks and finally finishing a huge project(I began in July). But I am finally feeling like everything is back to normal. I'm back on my routine but only better. I can go home at lunch and wash clothes, vacuum, run the dishwasher, or just take a quick nap:) Even though I am in the office I ultimately want, I haven't officially gotten it yet. It could be the first of next year before I know for sure. I have experienced some moments of fear that I wouldn't get this office. I have slowly decided, although sometimes I have to remind myself, to trust God. If it happens--WOW WOW WOW--and if it doesn't I still have my office which is great too, just not as close to home. Either way I am truly blessed.

I would just like to ask that everyone reading this blog to pray for Freddie. She could have retired in Feb but decided to hang on for the rest of the year. And then in July was diagnosed with Stage 5 Lung Cancer. She is 1/2 way through her chemo and will find out next week if it has done any good. She is a really good person and doesn't deserve this, but then again who does?
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This weekend we are taking the kids camping for the first time!! We have been meaning to go all summer and one thing just led to another. I came across a tent at Target for $48 that was regular $198, that helped get the camping trip started. Since I bought the tent, we have to use it!! I've never camped in a tent before, so this is a new experience for all of us. I just hope we have lots of family time that we don't usually get when we're at home.

Family Encampment 2007

This weekend we went on our 3rd Family Encampment trip to Fall Creek Falls with our church family. My kids look forward to this trip every year. We had lots of fun, ate lots of food (5 pounds worth for me!), rode bikes (15 miles), hiked up and down the falls, nursed scraped knees, entertained natures critters (Amy you know what I'm talking about!), talked & talked & talked, cooked, cleaned, laughed, relaxed and worshipped. What more could you ask for??

Aug 1-14

School started Aug 3rd. Madison is in 5th grade and Grant is in 1st. Cary & I took off to take them to school to register and then to the library. Then back home for some pool time.

Of course Kaitlyn was having withdrawals from not being at our house all summer, so she came home with us after school registration. We went shopping that night at Opry Mills.

The next weekend Lexi and Kalesha were experiencing withdrawals too!! Between these 3 girls they are always wanting to spend the night at our house. So Friday night they came over we went to the drive-in and watched Underdog and Hairspray. I was so looking forward to Hairspray, but I fell asleep somewhere in the middle of it. So I guess I will have to rent it when it comes out. They also went to church with us Sunday and Lexi stayed with us until 8:30 Sunday night. She didn't even want to go home then.

This is one of Grant's best friend-Logan. I use to work with her mom and they live just a couple of houses away from us. Somehow these two have hooked up since kdg and rarely go a day without talking. Logan calls our house almost daily and also wants to come over daily. It's really cute to watch these two together. She also went to the drive-in with us.

Sunday was Life group at our house. Again I was in charge of the kids. This time I decided to get into the pool. We played several games. I was totally wiped out at the end of the day.

It was another WW (aka: Whirlwind Weekend)

Friday night started out with a sleepover with Maggie Jo. I had promised Maggie Jo all summer she could sleep over and since schools starts next week I fulfilled my promise this weekend. Maggie Jo is like no other child. She is full of energy and could care less who she is with. Here she is eating her made to order breakfast from Cary. She was somewhat amazed that Cary cooked breakfast because at her house her dad never cooks!!! Maggie Jo likes to be entertained so I was somewhat concerned that Madison wouldn't be up to entertaining Maggie Jo the entire time but I knew Grant would love it. Well, Grant ended up sick with a migraine, so when Madison was played out Cary or I had to

take over. Thank goodness for the go-cart.

Maggie Jo loved it and stayed on it most of the day.

Saturday my niece Katie had her 5th b-day party at my house. As you can see in the picture she wasn't exactly happy about having a swimming party. She wanted a skating party.

Here are some group shots of the party kids. As you can see the kids didn't cooperate with me. I've decided not to quit my day job to become a children's photographer!!

Here is my sweet nephew, Riley. I could just eat his chubby cheeks up. I am always in his face trying to take his picture.

You would think we didn't have a diving board. Anytime Cary is in the water he is the human diving board. The kids love jumping off his shoulders or being threw into the air by him. It will be interesting to see how well is back is doing in another 10 years!!!

And then Sunday we hosted Life Group at our house. There was 10 kids all together and I was the lucky one left to watch. Needless to say I didn't stay dry. Some of the kids loved splashing, throwing wet balls or goggles full of water at me. It was OK because it was really kinda hot out there.

Who needs pool toys when you have an empty Baquasil bucket?? My kids play with these buckets every time they get into the pool!!

The ONLY way I could get the kids to calm down and quit trying to drown me was to bring out the ice cream. This bought me enough time until the rest of the adults could join me. By the way can you tell I got a camera for my birthday??