My sweet girl!

We have been busy enjoying the last few days of summer. I start back on Wednesday (but will probably go in and work some Monday and Tuesday, without pay...thank you Sonny Perdue). The kids start back on August 3rd.

I wanted to play with the settings on my camera and my sweet girl was more than willing to be my model! These were taken at the river downtown.

Poor baby!

My poor sweet little baby boy had his wisdom teeth taken out yesterday. He actually did really good! As soon as I got him home, I fed him a small amount of pudding, had him drink about half a cup of water and take some Advil. He slept while I changed ice packs every 20 minutes. At 2:00, he woke up and was feeling fine! Ate some jello, pudding, applesauce, chicken and stars soup, baby food sweet potatoes (gross I know, but we added a little butter and brown sugar), and drank several cups of Hawaiian Punch, flat sprite, and water. He fell alseep about 9:30 and I woke him up at 11:30 to give him a percocet and some advil. He slept until 6:30 this morning ~ when he woke me up and asked for more pain meds. I gave him another percocet and 3 advil and he is still sleeping. He has had a much more easier time than C did when he had his out. We may be able to take that weekend trip to the beach next week afterall!

Bahamas '09

Cruising on this to Nassau and Freeport.

Dinner the first night.
The water is so blue!

Formal Night

Bahamas Baby :)
E swimming in Nassau. The water is so clear, you can see down to the bottom no matter how deep you are.
E, D, and me eating dinner.
Going snorkeling in the Coral Reefs off Freeport ~ Daddy with Z and E.
C and H. H sort of got seasick going out to the reefs.
LOVE the water! I took a bunch of pictures with a waterproof camera, but haven't had them developed yet.
C and H with their snorkeling equipment on.
E got tired!
You really haven't lived until you've played Putt Putt on top of a cruise ship!
We thought it was hilarious that there were 'sand bunkers'!
One of our towel animals.

Sweet!

Sometimes they fight like cats and dogs, but at the end of the day, they really love each other! Z was laying on the hammock texting his gf and E went outside to talk to him about something. This is how I found them 30 minutes later.

Graduations

Friday was our last day of school. This little lady had her 7th grade awards that morning. I am so proud of her...she got awards for Honor Roll, Beta Club, Exceeding in Math and Language Arts on the CRCT, and the Presidential Excellence Award. She also got some sort of Champs award and Cheerleading awards.

Then we had H's high school graduation that night. The silver means she is an honor graduate! She spends so much time at our house, I feel like she is one of my own and I am so proud of her!

American Idol

Since I have spent the better part of Tuesday and Wednesday nights glued to the TV, I thought I would share my ramblings about American Idol.

1. I am very happy with the results. I thought Adam looked ridiculous all evening. Kris seems to be such a nice, humble guy and I am glad "the underdog" won! Not to mention he is just so cute and adorable!

2. I would have liked the final more if it had been Danny and Kris as the top two.

3. No way, no how should they have let bikini girl up there or let Kara open her 'dress'.

4. The thing with Tantiana (or however her name is spelled) was just way too staged.

5. KISS is old...good thing they wear so much makeup!

6. Cyndi Lauper should have worn more makeup.

7. Simon showed no class when they announced Kris as the winner.

8. People who keep saying Adam got 'robbed' should have voted more and/or accept defeat gracefully.

9. I was very thankful for my unlimited AT&T texting!

10. I wonder what I am going do on Tuesday and Wednesday nights now?? Maybe get a real life?! LOL

Happy 16th Birthday!

Yesterday was one of my favorite guys' birthday! He turned 16. Yikes! He can't get his driver's license until he completes Driver's Ed. so he'll be waiting over a month. We got him a new cell phone (that he picked out) and are in the process of looking for a car or truck for him...preferably one big enough that I will feel safe letting him drive. I know it sounds lame, but I honestly can't believe he is already 16.

His girlfriend decorated his locker at school and I made sure to put his picture in the birthday section of the paper.

We took him out to eat. He ordered Filet Mignon. He has expensive taste. Here he is eating the Filet Mignon and the huge salad.

Then we came home and had cookie cake and opened presents.

Happy Birthday baby boy! We are so proud of you!!

Time is flying

I am still here, just really busy. End of school projects are about to make me regret not homeschooling my kids! Nah, not really. I just hate bugs. More on that later though. E had a major birthday and is now offically a teenager. Z's is next week and he will be 16. Be still my heart! Pool is opened and the water is COLD. We had to have a new liner and it took 3 days to fill the pool up. The kids will swim...I am a weinie and will not even stick my big toe in that water. It might help if the temperature outside would get above 80 degrees. Hope everyone has a great day! I am off to get a pizza box to put these nasty bugs in...or should I say for my Mother to put those bugs in. I won't touch them.

busy, busy, busy

Busy...describes my life right now. I am sure in 3 weeks, after school ends, it will be better. Z and E have some major projects due and I am helping with those and then we have all the other end of the year activities going on too. And we have 2 major birthdays coming up in the next 2 weeks. C is in the mist of finals and getting stuff transfered for next year.

Ever notice how everything breaks all at once? In the last two weeks we have had to buy a new lawn mower (riding), a new pool liner, new tires for my van, new windshield wipers for my van, a new toilet seat, and now the weed eater has decided to die on us. Thank goodness for savings as we have spent some major money ~ including the bill for our cruise. I know this is life and we deal with it, but I really hope stuff stays fixed and nothing else breaks.

His 4th (and hopefully last!) Prom

Busy, busy weekend. E is at middle school cheerleading competition camp all weekend. C and his girlfriend had prom last night. I can't believe he has been to 4 proms! I picked E up from camp during her lunch break and took a few pictures before taking her back.

Every year I take a picture of E wearing C's coat. I guess when she goes to the prom, I'll make him wear her flower! C and my Mom

C and H...they have been dating a year and half. He thought it was so cool that his NY hat matched his tux.

God is good...cancer is bad.

This time last year, I was at the hospital with my Mom while she faced a mastectomy. After going back into surgery a month later to have more tissue removed and then facing 8 weeks of radiation, today my Mom is fine!

25 years ago, she had a total hysterectomy to remove cervical cancer. She made a complete recovery from that too.

She is my Hero and I am so thankful and blessed that she is still with us!

Easter

I love Easter. It is one of my favorite holidays and usually I go all out decorating. This year, for some reason, I did not. I put out the flag, added a couple of bunnies around the house and called it done. On Saturday I was still helping the Easter bunny shop. We finally colored eggs at 9:00 that night. E was all into it and made sure her eggs were brightly colored!

Z multitasked...colored eggs and texted his girlfriend.Later C and his girlfriend colored a couple of eggs.

Easter morning, we made the teenagers get up early to open baskets. They all looked like death when they woke up, but by the time we were ready to leave for church, they looked like this:

This year, E hid the eggs for my cousins' younger kids.

Every year, we would take a picture of all the cousins getting ready to hunt eggs. This year, none of my kids were in that picture. It was bittersweet. I love that they are growing up and becoming more independent, but I can't help it...I miss them getting excited about finding chocolate in a plastic egg.

Vacation!

This week we finally booked our vacation. In June I will be on one of these heading to the Bahamas!

Let's Play Ball!

My little cheerleading princess is now a softball player! First some background...up until 5 weeks ago, E didn't own a glove, had never touched a softball, and didn't have any idea which end of the bat to hold. Then she decided she wanted to play softball and to our (my) great surprise, she is not half bad. She can hit, she can field, she can run. And she was throwing like a girl, but in the 3 weeks since practices started, her coaches have worked with her and now she can throw pretty well too! We had our first game last night and even though they lost, they looked good playing...see...we fix our hair while the pitcher warms up!

And the parents sit in the stands freezing while cheering them on. Did I mention it was cold? Or that we had snow flurries in April?

One of my favorite guys!

It is a rainy afternoon ~ a good day to curl up with a cup of hot tea and a good book and act like a slug. But first I had to take one of my favorite guys to the dentist and out to lunch. He picked Red Lobster...he has good taste! I enjoyed getting one on one time with him. We rarely get that and so what if he had to miss some school for it to happen? Wow! I just realized the next time he has to go to the dentist, he'll be able to drive himself there!

Spring Break

We had our first Spring Break this week ~ we'll have another one the week of Easter. Z had Driver's Ed. so I didn't get to sleep in. As a matter of fact, we had to be up earlier since the school he was taking it at was 25 minutes away. His high school is 5 minutes away. This was the classroom portion ~ he will do the driving portion in June. E and I spent a lot of the week trying to stimulate the economy. Last Saturday we went to Kennesaw. The phone man's brother is getting married and E is going to be a junior bridesmaid, so went to David's Bridal and then shopping at Town Center. She made out really good. I came home with nothing. Then Wednesday we went to the mall in our town and I got her a few more things. Last year she could wear kid's size 8. Now she is in size 12 or an adult extra small in tee shirts. She is so excited that she can now wear Hollister!


I spent some time this week sewing too. E's Easter dress is black and white. C is wearing a black and white striped polo and Z is wearing a solid black polo. I couldn't find a dress I liked, so I took this














And made this.

Sad

Sad...I am very sad. My niece took my great nephew to the doctor on Monday and they told her they will probably have to remove one of his kidneys. Right after he was born, he got very, very sick and his kidneys started shutting down. One of his kidneys (and I honestly can't remember which one right now) was severly damaged and they thought he was going to lose it then. Later, they said it was functioning at 17% and as long as it was at least 12%, they would leave it in. Now, the doctors are saying it doesn't look like it is growing, so they most likely have to remove it. They will do a scan in early June and if it is decided that it needs to be removed, they will do when he turns one in August. I am just heartbroken over this...I am sad for Savannah, Mike, Addison, and Connor. I am just sad.