Memorial Day Weekend

Ok, first I have to apologize for being away so long. I sometimes get to hating the internet. I don't really know why. I guess it's just that sometimes I want to be left alone in my own little secluded world with minimal people bugging me, and the internet is this massive connection to all of mankind, so I just avoid it. My insanity aside, we had a pretty good Memorial Day weekend. This first picture is of some cupcakes that me and my mom made for a baby shower. We were pretty proud of them. Me and her and my sisters and some other girls from church had a brunch for another girl at church and it turned out really nice. Plus, brunch food is quite possibly the best food in the world, aside from Thanksgiving dinner. We had breakfast casseroles and hashbrown casseroles and muffins and cinnamon rolls and scones and fruit and bacon...mmmmm!!! After I left the shower, me and Andy and the kids went to a car show to see countless numbers of old cars, some restored and some displayed in all their rusted glory. Then we took the kids to the Babyland General Hospital, which is where all Cabbage Patch Kids are born. It's a pretty neat place, and it's a free self-guided tour, which is even better. We got to walk through and see Cabbage Patch babies and Premies and Kids, and we even got to watch an actual "birth." They use all these cute terms like being dialated to "10 leaves" and having a shot of "imagicillin" and performing an "easy-otomy." Then they pull the little baby out of the cabbage and discuss how they didn't have ears in the past, but have them now because someone planted the cabbage right next to corn. The kids love the whole thing. And then the last pictures are of the kids playing outside with Daisy. She's been nice to have around. Today we went to various families' houses for lunch and dinner and ate too much, which is what the holidays are all about. So, that sums up our weekend I think. Stay tuned for our beach trip. We're leaving this Thursday for Destin, FL and get to stay all the way until June 9, which will be some extra hibernation time for me.

I Graduated!

I had my big graduation today!!! I'm so glad it's all over and I actually have my degree and diploma as proof. The graduation was nice, but the air conditioner broke, so it was a bit toasty. In fact, it was so hot that people were visibly sweating. Thank goodness the guest speaker wasn't long winded. I'm so relieved to actually be finished and all official.

Evan and Alli's Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated Evan and Alli's birthday. They took cupcakes to school on their actual birthday (the 25th) and then we had a party for them on Saturday at Jump Zone. They had a great time and had cake and ice cream and opened lots of presents -- everything a child could hope to have in a birthday.

Trip to the Dentist

Over spring break, while some families had big plans for fabulous vacations, my family had our priorities set at good oral hygiene. Actually, the dentist Stephanie works for was out of town, so we could all sneak in and get our teeth cleaned since we were all out of school. Those are the wonderful benefits of having a dental hygienist for a sister. It was Evan and Alli's first official cleaning, so they were really excited about it. The last pictures of the three of them are the flouride treatment. They have the huge trays of flouride in their mouths, along with the suction, which they all found to be fascinating. And, we all got a nice, good, healthy report at the end... except for Drew's whole extra tooth thing. Anyone know a good orthodontist?

Our New Baby

This is the latest addition to our family. She's 6 weeks old and she's mostly beagle with a little something else mixed in. Her mother is full beagle and her father is some beagle and some other stuff. She was a complete surprise...so much so that when Andy walked in with a living creature in his arms, my response was, "What's that?!" We've been talking about getting a dog for a while, but buying a nice, bred dog is so expensive, and then muts can be a toss-up, so when some friends of Andy's had some puppies they were giving away for free, he decided to just get one. She's precious and the kids are so excited. Evan's a bit skiddish around her. He'll touch her and pet her, but if she tries to sniff him or really just moves her head too much he starts to freak out. Alli is, as usual, his complete opposite. We've had to force her to stop picking up the dog because she'll just grab her wherever and hold her upside down or in some terribly uncomfortable position. We just got her, so we're preparing for that dreadful first night with a puppy where she sits up and cries all night long, and we've already discussed the chewing up of toys and all that fun stuff. She still doesn't have a name. We just can't agree on anything yet. Any suggestions?

Birthday Parties

For the past two weekends we've had birthday parties to go to. Last weekend we went to a party for a little boy at church at Jump Zone, which is a really neat place. It's the place to have parties these days since they do everything for you and all you do is bring the cake. The kids love it so much that they've all three asked if we can have their parties there, so you'll probably see more of it in the future. They have all these blow up things to jump on and play in, so most of the videos are from there. It's big enough that adults can play and climb and jump, too, and it's a terrible reminder that I'm not a kid anymore. Plus, carrying the camera while wild kids are jumping all around makes it even worse. My sense of balance isn't what it used to be. Maybe I should take some yoga classes for that. Then this past weekend we went to Andy's granparents' house for his aunt's 6oth birthday. It was pretty nice and the food was great. Most of the pictures are from there, although there's one video of Drew and 2 of her cousins dancing.

Loving the Weekend

Now that I've joined all you crazy people in working every day, I've really learned to appreciate my weekends off. I understand why Andy wants to hang around the house now. But, we decided to get out and do some fun stuff. Some people up the road from us that Andy knows own a car dealership and got a bunch of monster trucks out crushing cars and giving free rides, so we went and checked that out. It was really cold when we got there, and we were sort of unprepared with our light jackets, so the mile long line we would've had to stand in for the 4-second ride just didn't seem worth it. We just took some pictures instead. Evan was the only one that would actually sit in the tire. Then we headed out to Drew's first T-ball practice of the year and sat in the cold some more. The day would've been really nice, but the wind was awful. You can hear how bad it was in the videos. It's so funny to watch them play. Andy is assisting a guy who assisted him last year, and they're constantly reviewing with the kids where they're supposed to run next. In the video where Drew is batting, you can see a little kid at the end sort of wandering around home plate with very little clue as to what was going on out there. By the way, Drew's the one in the red sweat shirt. Also, some of you may have noticed that I added a guestbook link (over on the right under our family picture). Please sign it. I love knowing who's checking my blog. Thanks!!!

No Time For Blogging

Now that I'm deep into my student teaching, I have so little time for anything other than that. On top of everything else, Andy has been laying hard wood floors, so our house has been a terrible disaster. But, all stress aside, I'm still really excited about teaching. The weather has been pretty nice around here, so the kids have gotten to play outside a lot. Andy's dad has a creek running through his back yard, which the kids love, so I took some pictures with my brand new camera.

Severe Frost Bite?

I just finished my first week of student teaching, which I'm happy to say that I survived with flying colors. Fourth grade is just as wild and attitudinal and obnoxious as I thought it would be, but it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. In fact, I'm really enjoying it, and it all works out since 4th graders understand rolling eyes and sarcasm the way a 1st grader just doesn't. As tired as I am, I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow. So, I was down stairs at the computer typing away on a project, and being the accommodating mother that I am, I gave Alli and Evan some paper and markers to use while they were hanging out in here with me. Well evidently they got carried away and slipped out of here while I was completely engrossed in my work, because a few minutes later Andy came downstairs and said, "Didn't you see Alli's arm?" I said no, and she came around the corner with her arm completely black. Of course, she had touched the walls and Evan several times, along the way. Thank goodness for semi-gloss paint and washable markers. Normally I get all irritated and impatient, and I'm totally not the type to think it's funny when my kid destroys something, but her little black arm just cracked me up. When I stuck them in the bath tub, the water turned this lovely shade of greenish blue, which sort of reminded me of the nasty water at those putt-putt courses that try to hide the putridness of their water with dye. Now we know it must be a black marker that does the trick.

Snow Day

Last night it snowed! Andy had to be at work with a suitcase packed at 6:00 this morning, which is normal for him. Any time we have extreme weather they prepare for the worst. So, at 7:30 when the kids woke up and saw the snow they were super excited about it. Unfortunately, it was already starting to melt and was raining, so we went out before we even had breakfast to make sure they got plenty of time to play. The snow was actually the consistency of a snow cone -- not shaved ice -- a snow cone with little tiny pellets of ice. Since it was so cold and it was raining, we didn't stay out too long. In fact we probably spent as much time outside as we spent getting dressed. The sad thing was I got the kids all dressed and then they had to sit and wait in all their layers of clothes for me to get dressed, and I could just see them starting to sweat, so I let them wait for me on the front porch. Alli got cold pretty quick and was the first to ask to come in, but I think Evan and Drew would've stayed out all day.

Random Kid-ness

Here are just a couple of videos of Evan and Alli playing. Apparently Alli was bitten by a rabid dog this morning and I didn't realize it because she kept finding it amusing to chew the wall. Yes, my children are strange.

MLK Weekend

This past weekend we went down to Tampa for my Granny and Papa's 60th anniversary - yes, 60th! We had a really good time. My kids get to be around Andy's extended family all the time, so I really enjoyed seeing them with my family. Even though we were there to celebrate my grandparents, everyone was so great with the kids. I almost felt like they were the guests of honor. We had a super nice catered dinner at my Aunt Cindy's house which was so incredibly good that I even ate the green beans, and anyone who knows me knows how amazing that is. I also finished up Evan's plate, which I regretted soon after. It was just too good to let it go to waste. Anyways, almost all of the family was there. Andy couldn't make it, and then 3 of my cousins and their husbands and my uncle couldn't either. But, we had a pretty big crowd and all had a really nice weekend. I just wish we lived closer together! By the way, if you want to enlarge any of the pictures, you can by clicking on them. And, for Jesse, every time Evan and Alli look at the pictures and see him, even if the entire family is in the picture, they say, "There's Jesse."