Catching Up!!!

It's been a while. SO instead of writing about the past 2 months, I would rather show you:)





At the first of October, 19 of my family members stayed at this log cabin in Gatlinburg.


See, here are some of us!!

The spunky ones went to Dollywood:)

Some of us played.....

Some of us screamed......

Cary & I also chaperoned a 2nd grade field trip to the Adventure Science Museum.

We carved pumpkins...

Grant's class did a Halloween play.

We even had a mysterious guest for dinner one night;0


We went trick or treating. First stop was Pa Ray.

We were bored one night, so we(my brother and I) let the girls paint our toes.

I have also been dilly dallying with ebay, which is part of the reason I have no extra time but extra money;)

And last but not least we had Madison's 12th birthday party last weekend. We had around 16 kids and about 15 adults come to her hayride/cookout party. FYI the shirt she is wearing in this picture is mine. I'm not sure if I should be flattered that she wants to wear my clothes, or upset because she wants to wear my clothes.

Spelling Lessons

Schools back in session and just like last year we(Grant & I) have weekly spelling words. As I was trying to help Grant with his words I came across one he didn't know. The word was Lettuce. He could get the L-e-t-t but then he would just stop and look at me. I formed a "U" with my thumb and pointer finger. It was a perfect shaped "U" too I might add and I asked Grant what was it. Either he can't see very well or he didn't get the point. His first answer was "an eye". What?? And then when he saw by the look on my face that was not the right answer, he said "an inch?" Madison and I just looked at each other and laughed. No Grant, we are not laughing at you we are laughing with you.

My New Hobby

I love the finer things in life, but........ I am also very frugal. I have stumbled across a site called moneysavingmom.com and I love it. She has links on how to shop at CVS, Wal-Greens, etc. So Monday I tried it at Rite Aid. Here are my results:

5 items purchased
Total spent= $22.31
Rebates on all 5 items= $16.98
1 Mail in Rebate=$3.99
1 coupon used =$3.00
Total spent after rebates and coupons=$1.34

So what did I get for $1.34:

Pert Plus 13.5oz Reg $4.19
GE Longlife Light bulbs 2PK $2.00
Gillete FSN razor $9.00
Charles Worthington Conditioner $4.99
Revlon Nail Polish $2.99

There was a lot more I could have got but ran out of time or the store was out of the item. It does take alot of time figuring out how to get the best deal. Clipping coupons will help tremendously in getting the best deals. For example, the Pert Plus was $4.19 with a rebate of $2 I also had a coupon for $3 off, the bottle had a mail in rebate of $3.99 so the shampoo ended up being a -$4.80. I MADE $4.80 off a bottle of shampoo. I just have fun seeing how much I can get for nothing and the rebate process is very simple. You just have to go online and pick the items you bought and put in info from your receipt and your rebate will be mailed to you in 2-3 weeks.

Chiropractors

All summer long my mother has been going to a chiropractor. She started off going 3 times a week and sometimes 2 times a day. With gas prices hovering around $4, I seriously thought she had lost her marbles. She claims to feel 100% better. I asked her to demonstrate on my back what they were doing. It was nothing but light pressure in different areas. I found it hard to believe that it could be helping.

Mom started talking to the chiropractor about Grant's migraines and the chiropractor is certain she can help. So he is going Friday. I also have encountered several other people that feels the same way about this chiropractor and has been going for years. So being the person who will try anything, I had to try this out. So far I have only been twice and I seriously do not see how the small amount of pressure they are applying can help. But I'm keeping an open mind and checkbook. Seriously this isn't cheap. With my Mom's insurance she only has to pay $6 per visit. But with my two insurances combined I am paying $25 per visit, not exactly cheap.

On Monday as I lay face down on the massage table thingy, the chiropractor kept saying things like: "Poor dear", "Oh bless your heart" etc. (I am experiencing frequent head aches that I am sure is not caused by me hunched over at my computer all day reading blogs) The look on my face had to have been priceless. I didn't once ask her what was wrong, because honestly I don't want to know if it's bad. She wants to see me again today and Friday, according to Mom that's bad. I'm going back today so hopefully I will get my nerve up to ask her how bad it is:)

On the Road Again

Seems to be the theme for 2008. We left out Thursday night after work for Santa Claus, Indiana. Our destination for this trip was Holiday World. We had heard great reviews and just had to try it out. My brother's daughter, Mahaley, went along for the ride. Get it-along for the ride. OK never mind. We were literally at the last minute searching for a hotel. This is so not like me who has OCD when it comes to planning. I had tried all day at work to research hotels or as Cary would put it-find the cheapest (sometimes cheap is not always good, as we have learned from the past). Never-the-less my old, dilapidated(yeah I had to look the word up), tortoise moving computer at work took forever to search. So I gave up until I could get home to my state of the art laptop--NOT. It's not much better than my work computer. I succumbed to the pressure, tired and stressed, and paid 134.95 for a Baymont Inn (thanks to that Government discount). Is that not ridiculous? Oh well we had a place to sleep and shower for the next 2 days.

We arrived at 10:00 PM and settled in. Nothing exciting must have happened, because I don't even recall that night. We awoke the next morning and headed to the only place (really the first place) we saw to eat-Denny's. I should have known when we saw the bug zapper lights at several booths, this was not fine dining. Actually Cary at first thought they were space heaters...until we heard the first zzzzzAP. And let me just say for the record Indiana does not have the same laws that Tennessee have so people can still smoke in public. Truckers, smoke, and bug zappers early in the morning. Enough said.

After breakfast we headed for Holiday World. It was a Friday and not overly crowded. They have 3 wooden roller coasters and if you have never rode a wooden roller coaster it is rough. I am in serious need of a chiropractor right now. After each ride I couldn't help but to wonder if all the jerking was good for your brain. Never-the-less we kept on riding. The only rides I refuse to ride are the round and round, spinning type. I just can't take it. We stayed until park closing and then headed back to the hotel. The kids were dying to get in the pool and hot tub at the hotel. It truly amazes me that the kids are so enamoured by the pools at hotels when they have their very own at home-not hot tub, but pool. We went to bed sometime around 11:30.

We awoke the next day and decided we would not be eating at the Denny's next door. So we ate the "free" continental breakfast. It was not bad, especially for free. Then we were off for Splash-N-Safari. Saturday the crowd was a different story. There were lines of people trying to get into the park. At one point I am sure I heard someone say that Saturday was the biggest crowd they have had to date. It was HOT. But that was OK because we were going to be in the water park all day. It has been a while since I have been to a water park and wasn't really looking forward to it, but I think I enjoyed the water park more than Holiday World. Again the kids were more enamored with the Wave Pool, seriously kids you have a pool at home!! There were a couple of slides we didn't ride, because someone (I'm not mentioning any names-Cary) didn't want to wait that long in line. Around 5 o'clock we decided to spend the rest of the time in Holiday World letting the kids pick which rides they wanted to ride one more time. Of course they picked the rickety, rackety wooden roller coasters that jarred me to death. Again we stayed until park closing and then headed out.

We are really getting this travel thing down. We can pack and unpack in a matter of minutes. If I could just figure out how to get the clothes washed and put away quicker.

Mahaley, who is 14, will probably be a somewhat permanent fixture on our vacations. She can watch the kids and play with the kids, it will be like traveling with a nanny.

Summer Celebration

For the past three years we have been attending Summer Celebration at Lipscomb. I have to say that I think each year it gets a little bit better(if that's possible). I wasn't for sure if I was going to be able to get off work this year but it worked out in the end. We stayed in the dorm along with several other families from church. Madison stayed in a room with Rachel, Claire, and Allie. I think they got very little sleep. I couldn't help but think that in the next 7 years they could be living together in a dorm. YIKES!

Sunday we took Madison to church camp where she will stay until Friday. I had told Grant he could stay at Granny & Pa's since he wasn't old enough for church camp. I spent Sunday night cleaning/organizing closets and drawers. I try very hard to keep a clean house, but for some reason the closets and drawers are never clean and organized. My closet is one of the hardest things for me to keep clean/organized. It's so bad that Cary actually took a picture one time and was going to put it on his blog. Later that night we watched Bucket List.

The movie really made us both stop and think. We kinda got "homesick" for the kids. Cary came home from work early yesterday and spent the day with Grant. They fished and played Rock Band. When I got off work we went to Pizza Hut to eat (one of the few places Grant wants to eat at), and then to the nursing home to see Cary's Grandmother. We then went to Wal-Mart to get Grant some shells for a gun at Pa's. We went back to Granny and Pa's where Cary and Grant decided to shoot the gun. It only took one shot and Grant was done with that. They then proceeded to use the remaining fireworks to blow up pears, plastic jugs and anything else they could find.

Home sweet Home..

We had a very relaxing, adventurous and fun-filled vacation. The kids picked up several Spanish words. Cary and I had some nausea issues on Sunday night after eating this:

Madison had some nose bleed issues, and Grant suffered his typical migraine but we survived.

We crammed alot into our 7 days. Do the kids look a little exhausted??

Madison was beaming after riding horses on the beach. Actually she enjoyed it so much she had to do it twice. You would think she had never seen a horse. The truth is my brother is a horse trainer and she has her own horse that she never rides. But when its $35ea she can't get enough!! Go figure. Once was definitely enough for me so I sat the next one out. Actually I had a massage and facial (much better choice).

The kids also rode a wave runner in the ocean (Cary wants to do this every time we go to the ocean)

They kayaked (this was free with our hotel, but of course once was enough) If you will look closely at the picture Cary is laying down in the kayak while poor little Grant paddles (No wonder he had a migraine)

They built sandcastles and searched for crabs (this was an every night event)

We all snorkeled at the hotel and on a snorkel trip out in the middle of the ocean. The water was so clear and beautiful.

Cary and the kids swam with Dolphins. The kids loved it and their pictures with the dolphin is priceless. (I'm not going to even attempt to scan it in!)

We rented a car for 2 days. It turned out to be a convertible 5-speed. I'm not very good with 5-speeds but I loved exploring in this little car as long as I didn't have to drive in town. After trying to find a gas station in town with Cary driving and me reading the map we decided we shouldn't be on Amazing Race anytime soon. Although I am sure their ratings would go up because people would be tuning in to see us fighting each week.

Cary & I celebrated our 14th anniversary while in Cozumel.

There was a show every night and after the show they would play a game with 5 couples and give away prizes. Cary and I played one night and we won!!!!! I did all the work, Cary just stood there:) We won a bottle of Tequila and a Carlos and Charlie's shirt. Cary and Madison played name that tune at the pool a couple of times. They came close but never won. But aren't they cute??

We went to Playa del Carmen one day on the Ferry. We really like it and even plan on going back sans kids:)

We went to a park (forgot the name of it) and saw a lighthouse and climbed to the top. My legs hurt for days (actually for a week).

Grant always makes friends wherever we go and Cozumel was no different. Here he is with Brett and another little boy from Norman, OK.

We arrived back home Saturday night around 11 PM. My Mom & Dad met us at home and Madison went home with them. Grant stayed with us which I thought was strange since he never turns down goint home with Pa. As I was unpacking Grant fell asleep on the couch. As I was going back and forth putting things away I noticed Grant was moaning and fidgeting in his sleep. I woke him up and asked him what was wrong. He said his back was killing him and his legs were numb. I took him to his room and layed him down. He started crying and acting like he was in pain. I noticed he had a fever. He said he thought he was just homesick. Cary and I watched him for a while trying to decide whether or not to go to the ER. (I will not go to the ER or Dr unless you are absolutely dying) At 3:30AM we finally got him settled down and he went to sleep. Needless to say I didn't get up until 11 Sunday. Sunday I started feeling bad and actually didn't start feeling better until Weds. Grant layed around all day Sunday but didn't act sick. He stayed with my Mom & Dad Sun night. They said he again done exactly what he had done the night before. But Monday he was fine. I decided if he did it again Mon night I would take him to the Dr. So far he is back to normal.