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??

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!!!)