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??

BFF (Best Friends Forever)

This weekend I had the very rare opportunity to spend it with my best friend Barbara. Barbara and I met my sophomore year of high school. Family, life and jobs has kept us from being as close as we would like to be. Barbara has just recently moved closer, as in 1 hour drive to me. So I am hoping that we will have more get-to-gethers!!

So we decided to take our daughters along with Barbara's sister, Connie and her daughter Lakin, to Gatlinburg. Our daughters are 10, 12 & 13. The girls got along great. We arrived late Friday night and went down to the strip and had a funnel cake at 12:30AM!! Nothing else was opened so we headed back to the condo. We sat out on the balcony until 2:30 talking!! The next morning we went to Dollywood. The very first ride we rode was Mystery Mine. Madison was in tears at the end of the ride. I never dreamed she would be scared. As we exited the ride there was a booth that sold pictures that were taken while we were riding. Normally I would never pay 19.95 for a picture of a ride, but this picture of the six of us with fear on our face was priceless. We had more laughs over that picture. Any time on the trip that we were needing a pick me up we just pulled out the picture and literally laugh for at least 15 minutes. By the end of the trip we just had to touch the folder that the picture was in and we would start laughing. We've decided that we are going to do an annual girls trip(SHHH don't tell the hubbys!!). Although at some points during the trip it was debatable if the kids would get to join us the next time.

Sunday we went to Wonderworks which is described as an amusement park for the mind. Madison & I rocked climbed and laid on a bed of nails(yes it hurt!). There was also a 360 degree bike that would go forward, up and over. I begged Barbara to ride. She didn't want to ride for fear of getting sick. I didn't think she would get that sick. Well she got THAT sick. She couldn't function for the rest of the day and we ended up having to leave early. She crawled into the van and slept the entire way home.

We arrived home around 6 Sunday night. Cary & Grant were at Life Group so Madison & I unpacked and washed clothes. I was up until midnight telling Cary about our trip. Needless to say Monday night I had to go to bed at 8, because I could not hold my eyes open.

July 18, 1972

Today the President announced this year's national price average's, saying that he felt good about some of the changes in our economy. He pointed out that although bread has gone up to .26¢ per loaf, and a half gallon of milk is up to .53¢, average incomes are also on the rise, up to $3,769 this year!

House.....$30,500
Car.........$4,034
Gas...........$0.45
Stamp.......$0.08
Flour.........$0.11
Eggs..........$0.47
Bacon.......$0.77
Ice Cream....$0.87

You might also find it interesting that as of today July 18, 2007, I have been around for 12,783 days. That's about 306,792 hours, and I have slept about 4,261 days of that away!!!

This has been a week of camp and NO KIDS!!

Friday night as we returned from Lipscomb, Madison and I had a "girls night out" while Cary took Grant to the golden arches for some boy time. Grant decided he wanted to go to Granny and Pa's so Cary took him there. And there he has stayed. He has refused to come home until tonight. Sunday we took Madison to church camp and wasn't for sure if she would stay. Much to our surprise she stayed the entire week without one phone call to us!!! Cary and I decided to go to camp last night to surprise her. And of course she decided to come home with us. Cary and I have had the week kid free. It's been kinda nice doing whatever we want to do and not having to worry about the kids but we also started missing the kids pretty bad. So tonight life as we know it should be back to normal. Both kids will be home. Madison will probably be ill from lack of sleep she has gotten this week and Grant will probably be ill from being back in the real world and having to do as we say not how Granny & Pa does it.

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I took some pictures last night at camp. Amy has my highest adoration for spending the last 5 nights with these girls. Within five minutes of being in their room I was ready to RUN!! There was clothes everywhere and girls jumping and flipping everywhere and of course 5 girls trying to talk to me at the same time. I think they all enjoyed themselves and have had lots of fun.

Camp

Yesterday Cary & I took Madison to Camp. I expected a call last night since this is the first time she has stayed away from us and not with family for so long. So far no call...so she must be having fun!!!

Last week we stayed in the dorms at Lipscomb University. We enjoyed a couple of days of lectureship and the kids enjoyed day camp. Actually they enjoyed it so much they cried when we had to come home Fri night. I was more than ready to be back in my bed. I didn't get much sleep in the dorms. Saturday I slept in while Cary cleaned the house and washed clothes. Thank you honey!!!

Grant has been at my Mom & Dad's since we got home Fri night. I tried to get him to come home tonight but he insisted he was staying until Fri night. Since he is not old enough for camp he thinks he should get to stay with Pa until Madison comes home. Since Cary is out of town tonight I didn't really push him to come home. (I selfishly wanted to have the house to myself!!!)

Busy--

Summer is flying by. Of course our hustle and bustle of life keeps it flying. Here is a little peek at my schedule.







Friday night 6/22-- Back to the houseboat only this time it was me and my two friends, my husband, friend's fiance, her kid, my two kids and my friends kid and friend. Lots of fun and food!!



Saturday 6/23--On houseboat all day. Cary, Nicky, and Bud take the kiddos tubing. The kids had a blast. Now Cary wants a boat. We rush home around 5 that afternoon and shower and change and attend friend's wedding shower. After picking up kids we are back home at 10:30.



Sunday 6/24--Can't recall what we did other than church and Life Group and of course lay by the pool.



Monday6/25--I attended my 1st PM Convention in Nashville.



Tuesday 6/26--PM Convention again. Shopping in Mt. Juliet. Bonita's Lingerie shower. Left home at 6:00 AM returned home at 10:00 PM. Cary left for Grand Rapids.



Weds 6/27-- PM Convention from 8-4. Rush home change clothes grab kids and back to Lebanon for church. Madison stays at friends house and drop Grant off at Pa's. Return back home to empty house around 9 PM.



Thurs 6/28 --Last day of Convention. Drove 1 hour to Nashville for 15 minute meeting. I'm not complaining because I got the rest of the day off paid!!! Since we finished the meeting within 15 mins. I went with another PM to Loveless Cafe. I have always wanted to eat there so this was the perfect opportunity plus he offered to buy!! Great food!!! Rush home to pick up Grant at Pa's and then home to change into swimsuits and off again to Lebanon where I met up with Amy & girls(including Madison), and Andrea & boys. We had a great afternoon of chit chat at Jimmy Floyd. Since we have a pool this was Grant's 1st time in a public pool. Rush home and nap a little, eat a little, and clean a little. Cary returned home from Grand Rapids.



Fri 6/29--Back to work with lots of catching up to do, since I've been playing for the last 4 days. Busy, busy day. Cary had to go to Oak Ridge so he picked up dinner on his way home. Lazy night just hanging around the house doing lots of nothing.



Sat 6/30--Lounge by the pool all day long with Cary and the kids. Cary took Grant to buy fireworks. Mom & Dad came over Sat night and we swam and shot fireworks.



Sun 7/1--We did our usual breakfast before church and then after church two of Madison's friends came home with her. They enjoyed the afternoon swimming and playing. Back to church at 4 for a seminar and then a quick trip to Wal-Mart. We dropped the kids off at Pa's for relaxing kid free night!!!





Mon 7/2--Back to work and finally getting caught up--just in time to take off Weds, Thurs, & Fri!!

Funny Things

The other night Cary and I along with Madison was watching TV. As Cary flipped through the channels he came across a show about cannibalism. He looked at me and said, "Could you eat Madison if you were starving and she was dead?" My response was, "NO WAY!!" ( I can't even choke a salad or shrimp down!) So I asked him could he? His response was "NO WAY!!" At that moment Madison looked at both of us and said, " I would eat yall!!!"
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Sunday Grant was being a little trying with us. And as trying I mean getting on my LAST NERVE! I told him and Madison that I couldn't wait till I was 80 and they would have to take care of me. I told them I was going to repay them for all the times they get on my nerves. And whoever acted the worse I was going to live with them. Later in the day I noticed Madison was being extremely polite and using her manners, so I commented on how good she was being. Her response was, "Well, I don't want you living with me when your 80!!"

Catching Up!!!

This is what has been going on since the last post--2 or 3 weeks ago. Six of the girls got together for a weekend on the lake. Thanks to Kim we had a super nice houseboat to stay in. We only stayed 2 days but we had enough food for an entire month! Very relaxing and LOTS of fun.

We have definitely got lots of use of our pool

this year. We have had a very dry and HOT summer so we have used the pool daily.

Today is our anniversary. We celebrated our 13 years together Friday night at the Cheesecake Factory. YUM!!YUM!! It's just coincidence that our anniversary almost always falls during Father's Day. So as Cary got his Father's day gifts I got a Louis Vuitton purse with matching billfold. It came from China from one of Cary's co-workers. Cary had him pick it up while he was over there working . Of course Cary couldn't pay him for it without me knowing so Cary has owed Ken for my pocketbook for about a month now. Now that's a co-worker!! Cary hid the pocketbook in the trunk and believe it or not I never saw it even though I put several things in the trunk. Cary has a very difficult time surprising me because I always ruin it. But not this time, I was totally surprised.

My new assignment at work is going Great!! Actually it has been alot better than I expected. I have already been asked to do another assignment as soon as this one ends. So that's a good sign I guess.

Cary has been in and out of town. But as of now he is in town. The kids have been enjoying sleep overs, VBS, fishing, and the ballpark.

The jigs up!!!

Well they have found me out. Who is "they" you might ask? "They" are the people that are higher on the todem pole than I. They're sending to me work. YES I WORK thank you very much just not in a labor intensive way. So starting next week I will be "filling" in at another office for the next 8 weeks. It probably won't be very labor intensive either but a whole lot more labor than I do here. Plus I will be in charge of 7 employees. Yikes!!! And during summer too! No more flip flops or capri's. I'll have to dress like a person in charge of 7 employees. No more taking off whenever I want. Now I will have to schedule around the 7 employees, which I'm sure they've already got their dates in. "Why do it?" you might ask. To get me up that todem pole.

So I might not get around blogging much in the next 8 weeks, because I will be working for real!!!

Hayden Grant

7 Years ago today Hayden Grant came into this world. He was born at 10:15 a.m after only 4 hours of labor. We didn't find out what we were having and I was just sure it was another girl. So I was kinda in shock the first couple days of Grant's life. I didn't even name him until the 2nd day. Out of my 2 babies he was definitely the best baby. Eat and sleep was literally all he did the first year of his life. And by eating I mean he would drink 64 ounces of milk a day(2 bottles at a time!) You would never know that by looking at him now or by his eating habits now. I literally have to force feed him now. At the age of 6 months he was 26 pounds!! At the age of 7 he is 50 pounds. I worried that he was too much of a momma's boy before he was 1. He soon squashed that fear and has been full throttle, all out, fearless, 100% boy. He has made me question motherhood many times and in the same way made me feel more loved than anyone. He has a sweet and tender heart and an inquisitive brain. He will always tell you he loves God first and foremost. He is my extroverted child. He never meets a stranger. Grant plays with girls and boys, he doesn't care as long as he has someone to play with. His favorite things to do these days are ride his go-cart, go fishing with daddy, swimming and taking his toys apart. Happy Birthday Grant!!!!

Antibodies

Last night I decided to build a fire in the patio fire thingy. As we were sitting around it roasting marshmallows, Grant kept sticking his stick in and catching it on fire. He would pull it out and want us to sing Happy Birthday to him and he would blow it out like a candle. I started telling him that 7 years ago I was this big and that he was inside my belly. I asked him did he remember being in there. Here is our conversation:

Me: Grant do you remember being inside my belly?
Grant: Yea
Me: Well what did you do inside there?
Grant: I played with the antibodies and we killed germs.

Me: Well I didn't know what to say after that so I just shut up!!!

Busy-Busy-Busy

It has been a busy week for us. With all the things we have planned it's going to be June 1st before we will slow down. Last weekend was Mother's Day so Cary and I took our Mothers and Fathers and my Grandmother to Chaffin's Dinner Theater in Nashville. Cary was out of town again Monday and Tuesday. Madison had a school program Monday that I had to rush to get to. Then Grant had his program Wednesday.

Tuesday will be Grant's birthday so we will be celebrating it this weekend with a pool party. Madison has been wanting to have a pool party for her class so since Grant's party is Saturday I figured I would just get both done on the same day. So on Saturday from 12-3 I will have a pool full of 5-7 year olds and then from 3-6 a pool full of 9-11 year olds. This is the first time Grant has had a real party. His other parties have just been with family. So I'm kinda nervous about having several 5-7 year old boys at one time. Especially if they are anything like Grant!!!!

Cary and his Mom Me, Mom, and Gran-Gran

I took this picture yesterday of Madison and her 4th grade teacher(who was also my teacher). Yesterday was their last full day and they only have to go back Friday to pick up report cards. They didn't have to go to school today and Madison has already called me to let me know she is bored!! This is only the first day of summer vacation so we might have a long summer.

The bottom pictures are of Grant and his KDG teacher Mrs. Carolyn, who was also my KDG and 1st grade teacher. Back then we were so smart she could teach 2 grades!!! Mrs. Carolyn is married to my 2nd cousin and her son, my third cousin, went to school K-12 together. In the picture on the right is Lauren who is Mrs. Carolyn's granddaughter, my 3rd cousin's daughter. Now they will more than likely go K-12 together. And the cycle continues.....

Take Me Out To The Ballgame......

Yesterday the 2nd-5th grade at Madison's school took a field trip to watch the Nashville Sounds. Cary and I along with my Dad(Pa) went along. I was assigned 4 kids to watch over and spent most of my taking them to the bathroom, standing in line for Dippin Dots, or chasing down the $5 icee guy. I only saw in total 5 mins of the game. The rest of the time that I wasn't helping or getting the kids something was spent people watching(which I really love to do!) It was a beautiful day and it actually got quite warm. As you can see by this picture of Madison:

Of course Pa isn't going to let her suffer so he bought her a $10 fan/water mister. She instantly perked up after getting her $10 souvenir.

In the bottom photo is part of the 4th grade class and their teacher. Actually she was my teacher too, I just don't remember what grade she taught when I was in school but I'm thinking it was 4th.

Madison Independent??

Could it be that Madison is finding her independence after 10 1/2 years?? Madison has always been satisfied just being at home. She rarely spends nights away from us(unless it's family). The first trip we ever took her on to Florida, she spent the entire time telling us she wanted "Her brick house in Brush Creek, TN!!!!" She was 3 and she just didn't understand why I couldn't just drive back to our house. I thought maybe she thought that the hotel was going to be where we where going to live forever. And she didn't like it.

But as she has grown older, she still prefers to be at home. So when she came home about a month ago and said she wanted to go to 4H camp I was a little concerned. Madison is super smart but I wondered if she knew what camp really was?? Did she know that she would have to go BY HERSELF to a camp miles from home with kids she didn't know? As we talked about it I told her to try church camp. Her response was "OK!". So we have the application, I filled it out, and again last night I talked to her again. I'm not trying to discourage her, I just want to make sure she knows she will be gone for a week. I asked her had she talked to Claire about it(thinking that maybe Claire had talked her into going). She said no. I told her that she would have to take a shower by herself every night(not that that's a big deal but I do still wash her hair for her). Her response was "can't I take a bath?" Nope just showers. She said she just wouldn't shower. Sorry sister that's not an option. I told her it would be fine and all the girls would have to do the same. She seems totally fine with it.

Most days I walk at the park on my lunch break and usually pray during that time. One of the things I have been praying for is for God to guide Madison (& Grant) and to help me to raise them to love God. I think he's listening. I'm so excited for her and I know she will have so much fun. And even if she doesn't stay the entire week(of course I'm not even mentioning that I could come and get her if she didn't like it) I'm just happy that she would even consider going.

Weekend Highlights....

The weekends seem to fly by for us. It could be from all the hustle and bustle we try to cram into 2 days. Cary started out Saturday morning and most of the day Sunday cleaning/reorganizing our garage. He is still not finished but it already looks 1000 times better. I am a clean freak but the garage is just one area I don't get into cleaning. We also attended the wedding of one of Cary's cousins. It's been a while since we have seen most of this side of the family so it was good to get to reconnect with them.

Sunday one of Madison's friends came home with us after church. They spent most of the afternoon riding the go-cart and catching butterflies. I feel so blessed that Claire is a part of Madison's life. They are so different yet so alike.

Grant of course spent the day trying to keep up with them. He's kinda getting tired of being the 3rd wheel so he informed us that the next time Madison has someone over he is too!!!

We finished up the day with ice cream at Maggie Moo's and Life Group. Life is so good!!!

Happy Belated Birthday to My Best Friend....

Even though you didn't get your "own" birthday party; you did get to celebrate with our nephew for the 2nd year!!! And to be fair I made them sing to you too!!!

You also got to play with the little ones even though you are not little anymore.

You are still king of the castle especially when I'm not home!!!!

Even though you can't seem to match your shoes when you are going out of town on a very important meeting!!!


You still get more handsome each and every year!!! Happy Belated Birthday Cary!!! To the Best Husband and Daddy in the world!!!

Los Cabos, Mexico

Finally I got my pictures to download(with the help of Cary). This was probably the best vacation we've been on. The only thing we would change would be the # of days. There was so much to do and not enough time. We went on 2 excursions. We don't usually do excursions but we decided we would this time. I was so glad we did. We had a blast. One day we took a glass bottom boat to the arch. I had seen the arch on the website and couldn't wait to see it in person and get pictures. We hadn't been on the boat 5 minutes when a wave covered us and my camera! I couldn't get my camera to come on(and probably the reason I can't download pictures from it now!). I panicked, but luckily 1 minute before we got to the arch it came back on!! Next time we are going to go back to the arch and snorkel.The next day we did an ATV tour. We rode a shuttle forever back into the desert. Once we got our ATV's we were off exploring the desert and a secluded beach. It was absolutely gorgeous. I was sore for 3 days after riding the ATV's. In some places it was so rocky I would literally bounce all over the place.

We ate and ate or I should say I ate and ate. This was an all inclusive resort so there was food everywhere all the time. I have the pounds to prove it too. 9 of them to be exact. Yes I put on 9 pounds on this short vacation. I would hate to see what would happen if I had stayed a week.