Thank You Could Never Be Enough

We live in a country that enjoys more freedom and blessings than probably anywhere on earth. It is because of these brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. There is no way to put a thank you into words for what they've done for us.

Speed Street

Well, while the cats away the mice will play, as the saying goes and today we played alright. Kelly and I took the kids to Speed Street in Charlotte today and it was totally fun. Here is why we went.



I saw where Cars 2 characters were going to be on display and I had to take Jon Tyler. I had to. So I signed my older two out and we headed up. To save having to find a parking place when streets had been blocked off and walking miles and payin to park, we rode the light rail from Pineville. That is my new favorite thing. After us Beverly Hillbillies figured out how to buy tickets, of course, and where to board the train, we loved it. It truly was country come to town. We got off just 2 blocks from where we needed to be and quickly found the Kidzone. Cheerios sponsored that part and there were samples of every thing imagineable, for free at that. We go pictues with Tony the Tiger, the Lucky Charms man and others. The kids scored Hamburger Helper hands and there was free ice cream. Anyway you look at it, that is the bomb. Then we found Lightning McQueen, Mater, and Finn (he's the new guy for you Cars rookies). The kids got their pictures taken with them and got to play on some inflatables. Then we boarded the train and rode back to our car. It was a perfectly fun, spontaneous afternoon, and I'm so glad we did i

Washington, DC Bound

Very early this morning, Donnie and Hannah boarded a bus with 40 something other excited students and parents for Washington, DC. Since I have been sweating the virus all weekend, I am so glad this day is finally here. It is a weird feeling though. This is the farthest distance and longest time apart that I've ever had from either of them. It seems like they are having a wonderful time, and I'm so excited they will have this time together. They have called several times and sent a few pictures. Gotta love technology. I'm sure I'll have plenty of blog worthy material when they get home.

Their afternoon view.

Trying to Stay Well

Donnie is supposed to be at a church men's retreat this weekend but he woke up Friday with an awful (!) stomach virus. He has been sick ever since. Last night Kelly got it, so I am on pins and needles around here. There is NOTHING worse than a stomach virus winding its way through 8 people. Been there done that when there were five of us, and I still have flashbacks. To make it worse, Hannah and Donnie leave for Washington, DC on a field trip Tuesday. We have out the Lysol and the hand sanitizer and are using it in mass amounts. I have Lysol-ed all door knobs, lightswitches, sink fixtures, toilets seats, chairs where the sick sat, the gate at the bottom of the stairs, phones, and remotes. Did I mention I HATE the stomach virus? Hannah came downstairs fully dressed, whereas I usually have to beg them to get dressed on Saturdays. When I asked her why she was dressed, she replied, "This house is full of germs and outside is not. I'm going to ride my bike." Can't argue with that.

Photo Friday

Jon Tyler has been introduced to wrestling by my nephew Rayden. He thinks anytime he's got his shirt off is wrestling time. Here are some of his moves.






Isn't he a cutie?

Wordless Wednesday - Triple Coupons - $76.31

Annual Softball Game

Every year the employees of our county play our rescue squad and the winner plays the sherriff's department. Every year they serve barbeque, which is personally one of my favorite reasons for going, aside from watching my hunky hubby play. Every year my husband says he's not playing. He's too old, he'll get hurt, he'll be sore for days...blah, blah, blah. Every year he gets "talked into it". Every year the county employees get beaten. Well almost every year. This year proved different. On Thursday (yes, the day after the storm) they held their annual softball game. Donnie got "talked into it" at the last minute, and I mean really last minute. He called me on his way to tell me he was indeed playing. They county employees won the first game for only the second time ever. My honey played well. They lost the second game but it was still fun to watch.

Donnie behind the plate


and speaking to his biggest fans - Hannah and Corey


There is a huge mound of dirt red clay at the ball field which my children inevitably find. I've actually learned to dress them in the oldest clothes they own and let them go at it. This year was no exception. Jon Tyler and Allie had a ball, as you can see.





Here is further evidence of their fun.

The Storm

We awoke Wednesday morning at about 1:15 to a crazy bad thunderstorm. What actually woke us was the fan we run at night going off because we lost power. The lightning was unreal, lighting up the sky almost constantly and the thunder and wind were frightening. Allie was at our bedside in a matter of seconds. I came to get my phone so we'd have an alarm for the next morning. Kelly met me downstairs and Hannah and Corey soon joined us. We could see our neighbors out even in the middle of the night trying to see what was going on. I figured we'd have power back on within a few hours and clean up a few limbs the next day. Boy was I wrong. I got a call about 6:30 that school was cancelled, and that's when I realized we'd had a very serious storm. We got up when the sun came up and went outside to take a look around. We had only a few limbs down but my neighbors had a large limb on top of their car, another neighbor's pecan tree fell and yet another neighbor lost their trampoline to a large tree branch. We checked Facebook and found out the damage was much more severe around town. Like any good Americans would do in a time of disaster, we headed to Bojangles for breakfast and rode around to see what was happening. I was really shocked. My pastor had a tree fall through his living room and many people had large trees down, roof damage, and other damage. We spent the morning helping with limbs and waiting on power. Donnie headed to work to find his office had been flooded. By the afternoon it was clear we were probably going to be without power for at least the night. Thankfully our neighbor had power so we ran a drop cord from his garage and plugged in our refrigerator, TV and 2 fans. We didn't get power back for 36 hours, but many of my friends were without for 3 days. My kids school was still without power on Thursday so they were out of school that day too. I am very thankful we didn't sustain any serious damage. I have never experienced any storm quite like that. I can only imagine what the people of Alabama woke up to just a few weeks before us.

Here are a few pictures we took around town. Most of them were taken by Hannah on a bike ride through the neighborhood.

Reverse

It's been so long since I've really updated my blog that even blogger didn't recognize me. (Well, I'm exaggerating but only a little). I don't really have a valid reason or even a bad excuse for not blogging, unless you count running a household with a hubby and 4 children plus 2 more but I'll get to that later. I was going to go back, post those things I missed and link them to this post. I don't know why - it just makes me feel better and more efficient. But I have a confession. I started this post about 3 days ago and I haven't gotten even this post finished yet. So I decided it would be better if I just gave a brief synopsis.

Early April brought spring break, a little later than usual this year, thanks to PASS testing. My birthday was the 6th, and I had a great day celebrating. My kids and my mom made muffins and sang Happy Birthday to me on the toilet. It was supposed to be breakfast in bed, but I'd gotten up to go to the bathroom when they arrived. You know what they say about getting to use the bathroom by yourself once you have kids - well it applies even on birthdays. But as Corey put it, "I think it surprised us more than it surprised you."

We took a trip to Walterboro to visit my dad and stepmom. It was really nice. The kids enjoyed their time in the country. We even stayed an extra day and took in an Easter egg hunt at their church, which was really fun. Those people know how to throw down when it comes to the kids. They hunted eggs, dyed eggs, ate hotdogs, played sports. It was great!

On the way home my sister called me from the ER where she'd been diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung for us commoners). This kills people folks; it's very serious. She spent two days in the hospital and is doing much better. Plus she has been out of work for a while so she and her son are staying with us until she can find something. When you got six people living in a house, what's two more? I'm sure this will make for some good blogging material so stay tuned...

Well I think that wraps up the overview. See you haven't missed much. I would promise to do better, but, well, that may not be a promise I can keep so let's just say I'll try.

Lost and Found

Yesterday was Allie's birthday party. Usually the day of a party I am running around like a chicken with my head chopped off, but this day was actually very calm, except for one minor incident. At lunch time we had seven kids here - my 4, my 2 nephews and a neighborhood kid. No, it wasn't party time yet. We - my mom, Kelly & I - were trying to feed the masses when Jon Tyler went missing. We realized it when we had all the older kids seated and eating and then we couldn't find him. Kelly said she'd just come from upstairs and he wasn't there. I ran outside and checked his usually hiding spot - the van. I didn't see him in our yard anywhere. I ran upstairs to check Corey's room, just in case. Still nowhere to be found. I checked my neighbor's garage and my mom started around the block. My neighbor across the street asked what we were looking for and when Mom told her, she started walking in the other direction. The older kids began searching too and I was near panic thinking that finally, I had really lost my child. (I say finally because he's given us plenty of short scares in the past.) Kelly remembered that the night before, he and Rayden had been playing in Corey's room when he got under Corey's bed. He has one of those captain type beds, up a little higher with storage under it. She ran back and opened the door and called his name. She didn't hear or see him in there. She started back down the stairs when she heard him. He was really under that bed and he was so quiet and it was so dark that when she opened it she couldn't find him. I've never been so relieved in all my life. We called to Mom and the neighbor that we'd found him and everything returned to normal - relatively speaking. The neighborhood kid remarked, "Boy, I would wanna play hide and seek with him." I personally think he has a new superpower - the ability to make 5 minutes seem like 25.

A Princess Turns Six!

Always makes us laugh - it just comes naturally
Likes all things girly
Loves to snuggle (always has)
Independent little booger
Easy-going, along for the ride

Our little princess Allie turned 6 today! Where has the time gone?!