Halloween 2010

A couple of pictures from our weekend... Elizabeth Jo has become quite the little UGA fan this fall, and so perfectly she was a GA cheerleader for Halloween. Cub was gonna be many things before he decided on the cool Wolverine this year... I just can't believe how big the kids are becoming!

Happy Halloween Yall!

Happy Fall Yall!

Well... I found my way back!

I haven't been far away, usually on facebook these days, and reading everyone else's blog. I am sure I mentioned it before, but it's more difficult to get to this blog now that I have changed my email, and they won't let me change it here even though it's a Google address?!

Don't sweat the small stuff, right?

Right... =)

So, as usual, lots has happened since spring. Too much to try and catch up with here unfortunately, but the good news is all is well... the summer was wonderful, and we went on a lot of nice trips. EJ turned 7, with a birthday trip to the American Girl Atlanta store, and Cub turned 5 with a party at Chuck E. Cheese... our babies are growing up!

I turned around and they weren't babies anymore... Cub even began dressing himself, and doesn't want me to even help him usually. It's nice in the mornings when things are so busy I appreciate one less thing to help do, but then again he's the baby!

I miss him needing my help...

He still gives great big ol hugs though, and kisses too IF his buddies aren't looking... I treasure those! He's a very caring little guy, but ALL boy just the same.

EJ is still such a sweet little girl, but now that she is in 2nd grade I can see glimpses of the teenager she will become... as the firstborn, she is very independent and has a strong will, but she's got a soft side and tender heart. Her prayers at night tell you all you need to know... =)

They are awesome... we are so blessed!

Geoff and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary in September, and my friend Laura and I celebrated our 40th birthdays at Hilton Head beach not long after. She turned 40 in July, and I will be 40 in December... Geoff doesn't turn 40 until next August, so he still has a little while!

We also celebrated in July as our sunflowers once again graced the fields, alongside the corn! After a summer off (due to the economy and increase in the cost of fertilizer), brother Billy planted these beautiful flowers in abundance, and I took the above picture late one day at the height of the crop. We got lots of great pictures this summer, but the sunflower ones are always at the top of my favorite ones... I will have to update the pictures here on my blog soon with some from this summer.

The 16th Annual Turin Tractor Pull was a huge success, and everyone enjoyed the new Turin Tractor Pavilion. We had the biggest crowd ever, and Geoff also got the website up and running. If you would like to check out the fun, go to turintractorpull.com and see all the cool tractors.

I am still playing around with photography, and love taking pictures of almost everything... but the kids are still my favorite of all.

This picture was taken right before Kimberly Grace's 1st birthday (brother Billy and Reynie's daughter, our niece), here behind our house.

Aren't they cute?! =)

Well, tomorrow is coming quick, and we will be heading to Lake Oconee for a family reunion, so I will wrap this post up for now.

I hope to be back soon, but I never know... between trying to stay off facebook, all the many kids activities, church and housekeeping I may be awhile...

But I hope not... I still like it here, and every time I come back I get the writing bug again.

(See Momma and Diddy? I do use my college degree... occasionally!)

Nowadays I just need to know how to drive... back and forth to kids activities and church! Wouldn't change it for anything in the world though...

(Can somebody out there help me change my email? That really will help me out a lot... better yet, why won't a Google based blog not let me use a Google email?)

Either way, Happy Fall Yall!

Spring is Here!

I am not sure why, but the week before a holiday, or a school break is always the most stressful. Last week was just crazy for me/us, but we made it through, and are so enjoying this spring break week!

Easter was also last weekend, and it was very nice... church, family and friends made up the festivities and celebration of our Lord's resurrection from the tomb.

And, that Sunday afternoon when we got home, I crashed. I think I slept for a hours on the couch... and then later all through the night as well. I was tired yall!

We have had a great spring break so far... from staying overnight at Momma's and Nana's, to the movies and eating out, we have had a nice staycation. Tomorrow we head up to the big city (Atl) and the Ga. Aquarium... the kids are so looking forward to this adventure, and so am I!

Have a great rest of the week yall!

Let it Snow! Yes, yall... in Georgia!

It snowed!

It really snowed this time too... we calculated it at about 3 to 4 inches, which in our terms is quite a lot of the white stuff. Usually when "snow" is in our forecast we get a nice little dusting and it's over as soon as it falls... this time it snowed all afternoon and into the night, leaving us in a beautiful winter wonderland of white.

Our children were absolutely thrilled... they had so much fun making (and throwing!) snowballs, and creating snow angels...

Did I mention the snowballs?

School was closed on Friday (day of the snow fall) and after spending most of the afternoon playing outside with the kiddos, I was frozen. EJ and Cub were too, but they would never admit to it, and were still ready to get back outside... it was getting dark though, and those little hands and feet needed a break!

Brrrrrrr!

That evening it was really nice to go my brother Billy and Reynie's house for a family supper. They live down the dirt road from us here on the family "compound" as we (semi) jokingly call it. This past August they had a beautiful baby girl, their first child, Kimberly Grace... she is such a sweet baby, and they are such good parents.

We went back early enough to see Kimberly before her bedtime, and then all enjoyed spending time with family. Momma and Diddy were there as well, and we had a nice evening inside, as the snow still fell outside.

The next morning I got up before sunrise to get some pictures... all of the pictures I posted here are from my morning trek... I made lots of them, and posted more on facebook, but for some reason it takes forever for pictures to upload here on blogger?

I know, more of the technical stuff I don't understand, but just accept!

By Saturday afternoon, believe it or not, most all of the snow had melted away... I have to say I wasn't too upset, but did miss the serenity of it. I find snow beautiful and fun to photograph, but I am not a big "cold weather" girl.

I am (patiently!?) waiting on spring... Easter is 6 weeks away, and I am ready for warmer temps, beach trips and the more unstructured days of summer ahead!

Meet Mr. Lily...

Well, since I have been away from this blogosphere we gained a new family member.

HIS name is Mr. Lily, and trust me, please don't try to explain to our daughter that, yes, this IS a male cat.

You won't get very far.

Elizabeth is so sure that our Mr.Lily is a girl that she named him Lily, after one of her best friends. After trying many times to let her know that her Lily was a HE, I gave up and renamed him Mr. Lily... it's actually kinda funny now.

Yall should have seen the vet when Mr. Lily first went in for shots and such... but I am sure they see a lot of strange names.

Mr. Lily came to us by accident, in the midst of the crazy house remodel. Lee, Geoff's sister, found him in the engine of an old cadillac, at a gas station in South Carolina. She was coming home (here) for Cub's birthday party and had to stop and get gas. As she was pumping gas, a guy pulled up on the other side in an old caddy... while they were standing there, both waiting for their tanks to fill, they began to hear a small "meowing" sound. After pin pointing this to the hood of this old guy's car, Lee asked him to open it up.

Soon as he did Lee saw this tiny little orange kitty pop up, out near the engine. He was covered in oil, and not much bigger than 3 weeks old. She immediately wrapped him in a towel from her car and brought him with her.

On her way home, she called me with the news. She had already saved 2 other cats last summer, and knew she couldn't keep this one. Surprisingly, when I asked (begged) Geoff for the kitty, he said yes!

We had a new member of the family...

Since then Mr. Lily has truly added more fun to our home. He is not really a lap cat like I was used to, but loves to play. We bought some jingly balls that he likes to punt around, and if you can't find him all you have to do is pick up on of those balls and shake it. Mr. Lily will come running!

I still love sunflowers...

Cub and Elizabeth in Cub's room before bed last weekend...

on the weekend they usually sleep in his room and play Legos until they fall asleep from exhaustion!

Wow!

I really didn't check before I began writing this, but I believe my last post was in the spring of last year. So much has happened since then, obviously, as life does move on... but I so wish I had written down so much of the past year. I stated when I began this blog that I am doing so in order to look back and remember those sweet (and not so sweet!) days of my children's lives, as they do grow so quickly, and I want to remember as much as I can.

But sometimes life does get in the way... and sometimes silly technology does too. In my case I believe it is both!

I use a gmail account for my email, but to write here on this here blog I have to use my old email address. I have tried to fix this "small" issue, but either it is not possible to use a gmail email for a google blog, or I am just not savvy enough to figure it out.

On second thought, it's probably both!

I think my last post was about our remodel in Elizabeth's bedroom. I love it, and we have made some more improvements since then. It's a true little girl's princess room, and Elizabeth has really enjoyed the change...

I just never knew at that time that it was only the precursor to another, bigger remodel coming just around the corner... that we would spend most of the summer and fall living in an all out construction zone.

No, I am not kidding!

Let me fast forward through May... Cub finished his first year of preschool and first year playing t-ball... EJ graduates from kindergarten and we watched as she danced onstage at her tap recital. I was so proud of them both.

Just for reference sake (and my memory) EJ was 5 years old, and Cub was 3...

June brought relief from the structure of the school year, and just as we were getting into the swing of things, the "flood" came through.

Okay, so we live on a little hill of sorts, and a flood would be a stretch here. But after I explain you will understand a bot more. The kids and I went to Atlanta to meet one of my best friends and her son at Olympic Park... we spent the morning there enjoying the water fountain, playing in the park and catching up on life. I am sure I would have stayed longer, but we needed to get back in order to make our church VBS on time, so mid afternoon we began the hour drive home.

As I pulled into the yard and opened the door, I heard the sound of rushing water.

??????

Water? We don't have a pool, and our water garden had not been turned on yet that summer. So, where was that water sound coming from? I headed towards the porch and saw the dogs were having a grand time in a large spray of water coming from the place a water hose should be.

??????

I then wondered why the hose was not hooked up, but slowly realized that this was a BIG "Oh my Gosh" and "What the *#$&" moment... As I ran inside the house and turned toward our kitchen, I came to an abrupt stop.

A river ran through our house.

Yep... hence the reason why we spent the next 5 months living in an unexpected remodel of our home.

Looking back now I feel like maybe it was a blessing. Our home was becoming outdated, and there was a lot we wanted to fix and do, but I hadn't been gathering my ideas yet. I wasn't prepared for FIVE MONTHS of construction and picking out flooring/granite/paint colors/etc.... did I mention that it was the summer? You know, the months when you can sleep a bit later and stay in pajamas until noon if you like.

Not this time, not for us, no sir ree! The guys got there really early, and of course we decided to also take down a wall, and add a room, and more cabinets, among other things. We either left the house every day and found things to do, or lived in our master bedroom.The sheetrock dust would kill you, and I still think I see it as I dust the house.

Geez!

August rolled around and school began. Our now 6 year old daughter began 1st grade, and our 4 year old son began PreK 4... the structure of a schedule began again, and the home construction was still going on. Don't get me wrong... we love the guys who remodeled our home. They also did EJ's bedroom, Momma's house and other projects for lots of folks in our extended family. Our kids call the boss "Uncle Randy" and we think of the whole crew as our friends.

As a side note, EJ had an episode with her heart racing, and after a trip to the pediatrician, then the ER, and later a heart specialist at Emory in Atlanta, we had a diagnosis of chest wall pain. So much better than the other option they thought it might have been... I can't spell it, but it's something like tachycardia.

Next came all the holidays, and then the new year. And now here I sit, trying to write a catch up post. I still have some painting to complete, and lots of decorating, but we are very happy with the results of the redo.

Sigh! I have skipped over a lot of great stuff that happened this summer and fall, but I could never get it all in. Camp Nana was awesome, and a lifesaver for this construction weary family. We took some nice trips and enjoyed our family. Life passed by slowly, yet so fast I find that I am nearly a year behind here... how does that happen?

So, I hope to do much better now in posting again. I make no promises as I seem to get so busy I tend to forget what groceries I need to buy, but I will make a great effort. I do want to look back years and years from now and read these snipits of life when the kids were small, laugh, cry and read it to our grandkids. =)

Of course, I also turned 39 in December... so those days are closer than they used to be!

Pretty in Pink

EJ is in high cotton... and it's all pink!

I am almost done in her room now, and yesterday after she came home from kindergarten she was grinning from ear to ear! We have moved her furniture back in, and I am slowly putting all her STUFF back in now too.

Can I tell yall a little secret?
Not everything is going back in...
Shhhhhhhh!

She will never know... and I am not going to junk up with too much STUFF.

This is the fun part now though! I sure am glad the painting is over, for the moment anyhow. The rest of our house is calling to me, but I am going room by room, and Cub's is next! He's getting a cool "fort" in his dormer and he wants a ladder....

Hmmmm... I need to get off this computer and get moving. So much to do and so little time!

I'll post pics of her room soon!