More Summer Stuff

Stephanie and Jose got Evan and Alli a 3-laned slip-and-slide type thing for their birthday this year, and we finally got it set up in the yard yesterday. We quickly discovered that we have to put it away every day because Daisy will definitely chew it up. She was very curious about the whole thing. Here's a little video clip.

Weekend in Alabama

We got home from Alabama at a reasonable 8:00 last night, giving me time to run to the grocery store for a few things, and still get in bed at a decent hour. Alli and I went over Friday with my parents to make it in time for the wedding rehearsal, and then Andy, Drew, and Evan came over later that night (arriving around 1:00 a.m. Georgia time). Drew had her end-of-season softball party where they got their trophies, and since she was the best player on her team (not my words - her coach told me this when we had to miss a game for Erin's wedding, although as her mom I completely agreed), we hated for her to miss it. We all had a really nice weekend, and I was happy for Andy to get to be around my hometown and old friends since we live in the middle of his and run into old friends of his all the time. We spent a lot of time with our old neighbors, who are the kind of neighbors people wish for. Andy kept worrying that we would be imposing, and I kept insisting that they didn't care. They're such nice people that at one point we were in their house admiring a decoration they had hanging on their wall, and Andy jokingly asked if they'd give it to us, and I told him they probably would if we asked for it. I don't know that they'd go that far to give us decorations off their walls, but they're just super nice people. I saw several of my high school friends at the wedding, and then we saw a lot of old friends at church on Sunday and had lunch with a few of them. So, it turned out to be a really nice weekend. At the wedding, the girl that did everyone's hair spent about 30 minutes each on Alli and Drew's hair curling it into ringlets, which they loved. Neither one of them has a bit of curl to their hair, so they were pretty excited about it. Here are a few pictures of them getting their hair done, and one with the bride and with Erin, who was also in the wedding.

Andy's Photography Skills

It's likely that none of you realize what a master photographer Andy is. Here he is showing off his talents at Erin's wedding rehearsal.

Summer Festivities

We're back from the beach and not a moment too soon. Andy and I were discussing how temperamental we are, and whether it's a good thing or not. It's like we have this extremely find line dividing where we're having fun and where we're not, and we go along having a great time, and then all of a sudden it's over. Last year we stayed at the beach way too long, so this year we were planning on leaving much earlier. Andy was ready, but I was still having a great time, so we stayed one day longer, and that proved to be too long. But, we did have a great time for the most part. First, though, there was Erin's wedding, which, as I mentioned before, was just beautiful, and it was great to see so much family that I hadn't seen in so long. Since I have so much to catch up on, here are just a couple of pictures:

After the wedding, I had a week of post-planning and training on our new math program, and then summer finally started for me. I found it to be very stressful. I've been so high strung for about 6 years now that the sudden drop in activity has been difficult for me. I'm adjusting, though. I was able to relax at the beach and I'm really looking forward to lots of mornings of nothing, and now that we have a back deck, my favorite thing to do is get up before the kids and drink my coffee out there, usually on the phone with my mom, solving the problems of the world. Any ways, here are some pictures of the beach:

Above are the kids playing Bingo. I can't tell you how many games of Bingo they played, but I appreciate the game on a whole different level now. It's fun and competitive with such basic rules, anyone who can recognize letters and numbers can play.

Here are Drew and Evan collecting what they called "clams." I don't know what the proper name is, and they may be clams for all I know, but they're those things in little closed shells that dig down into the sand.

Here's Alli with a boogie board.

Here are all 3 of the kids floating, or "relaxing" as they say.

And, last, we had to take some family pictures on the beach. It was kind of funny. That evening everybody had the same idea, and there were tons of families taking pictures. It was really nice down there, but I'm glad to be home. We're now getting ready for our trip to Alabama for the kids to be in their next wedding. If anybody needs lessons for their kids on being in a wedding, let me know. My kids have been in so many that Andy's considering charging for their services.

Insert Creative Title Here

Ok, here's another boring post with no pictures, but I just wanted to update again. My laptop is at my dad's house having more memory added to it. I should be getting it back at some point this week, but until then, I'm stuck using Andy's laptop to post, and he refuses to let me put any pictures on his computer, with the fear that his computer will slow down like mine did because of lack of free memory. Anyways, Erin's wedding was beautiful, so I'll get some highlights of that up soon, and in 4 days we're leaving for the beach, as I said before, so I'm still promising more interesting posts to come. Just bear (or bare?) with me for a few days while I get everything together. I'm struggling with a sudden absense of things to do in a world where I usually have a zillion things to do. I forgot how to sit still and relax without sleeping, so I'm relearning while walking around my clean house looking for things to clean because I don't know what to do without a job, papers to grade, lessons to plan, laundry to catch up on, a messy house to clean, ball practice, etc. Pitiful, huh?