School Starts Tomorrow

Yup, we have finished out another summer. Older two spent the bulk of their summer with their Dad in TX, and they saw a ton of rain. I guess they had a good time,.... they did get to swim a little bit, think they saw a couple movies, but other than that hung out at the house playing on the computers. The older they get, the more *eh* summer seems I think.
On the 9th we got to pick them up from the airport. I'm always excited to see them,.... it felt like it had been an extra long summer and boy did I miss them terribly!!! They looked pretty scruffy when they came out the walkway. Both needed major haircuts or something LOL But they were HOME!!!! *sigh* Yup yup life was good LOL
The younger two were sooooo excited, even Sydney said that she was looking forward to having her big brother pulling her hair and squishing her hard where her bones felt like they could break. Yup, she missed them huh? :o)
I had already bought a few things for school for the little ones,.... now I needed to cram and see what the bigger two needed. School supplies are always the worst. I think we have everything they need and clothes wise, I will pick up more here and there as the weeks go along.
Tomorrow I will drop them off at school, and come home to a quiet house and enjoy it with the hubby as he will be home tomorrow and Tuesday as well :o) Yay!!!!
A few pics I had taken when I took the littles to the park,.... thought I would share :o)

My Mom's Visit

Yup yup had a great time with mom. Lets see,... she arrived Friday, May 25th, late afternoon,.... With all the restrictions in airports, we of course couldn't stalk her at the gate, and didn't even know when the plane had landed, as the terminal there was too cheap to have any sort of monitors!! I was watching closely, and when I saw her coming, I hollered at the kids COME ON!!!! I rushed over to her, and hugged her so tight and didn't want to let go!!! Kids?? What kids?? LOL We headed out of the airport and I took a wrong turn and she got to see Riverfront Drive area, and then some LOL Got to the bridge and made it home without a problem,... stopped in Marion for Wendys :o) YUM!!!

Saturday morning, everything just seemed so surreal. MOM WAS HERE!! It was weird LOL Hubby got off work that morning, and visited.... poor guy was falling asleep on us some too. We had plans to go into Memphis, at the Peabody to a nice salon and get our hairs done. 9am the salon called and said that the gal doing mom's hair, her son was ill (Keep in mind this was memorial day weekend too) and wouldn't make it in. They obviously didn't have someone they could call in. I was pissed. I still plan on writing them a nasty note. So, that got screwed up. We looked online at the other locations, and chose the one in the mall. We got there in great time!!! I was VERY pleased with myself,... having not really driven around Memphis :o) I was very proud. We even had time to go through the Starbucks DRIVE THRU!!! (I'd only heard tales of these!! didn't think they really existed!!) got into the mall,... looked at a few things, headed to the salon. We both stopped short. Had we been 18 wheelers, you'd of smelled rubber lemme tell ya. The place was tiny, the chairs were all full up, and people standing around to spare, we were there right on time, and it sure didn't look like they were ready for us. As mom put it, it was more of a "Drive Thru Salon" NOT what we were wanting for our Mother Daughter Hair Day. I canceled our apt, saying we didn't have time.... and we went shopping instead!! (like that hurt our feelings any??? LOL) I came out of the mall with a cute pair of sandles, some comfy "thongs" (flip-flops) I got the girls some thongs as well,... plus some really nice wine stoppers for Hubby and the DVD Slingblade :o) I felt like I did real well :o) Not to mention I was shopping with my MOM!!! The highlight of this trip???? I got ROYALLY lost. I was so screwed up it wasn't even funny. We were seriously on our way to Little Rock. It was horrid. I panic when I get lost,.... Hubby I know was kicking me in the head (mentally) for not letting him buy me the GPS, but I was sure with our maps and all, I'd be JUST FINE!!! I think the next holiday that comes around, I'll be getting a GPS. We didn't get home until 9pm. It was awful. I think we'd left Memphis 'bout 4 or 5pm. It should've taken us about 1 1/2hrs to get home. Pathetic. Mom took it all in stride,.... she saw parts of Arkansas neither of us had heard of,... like Earle LOL *sigh* I felt like a total dope.

Anyhow..... Sunday we had planned to drive to Dyersburg (1 1/2hrs away) for a picnic with my Great Aunt and Uncle. I've not seen them since I was around 12yrs old or so. I went with my Nanny, Grandpa and cousin Frank to Oregon to visit them. Nanny and Grandpa both have since passed away. We got to the park,... really REALLY nice,... Okena Park in Dyersburg if you ever happen to go there LOL It was big and great play areas for the kids. We were right on time I think, and set up our table and waited and watched for them. Aunt Shirley had said they had a green car, a big sedan type. So, we were looking for a green big car. Eventually a car was driving along, slowly..... mom was sure it was them,... only the car was dark grey, NOT green. Hmm...... old age huh? LOL It was them. When I saw them, I recognized them,... I sure didn't think that would happen!!! It was a wonderful visit. They are odd people, but family :o) Uncle Bill wasn't standing there beside me for 30 seconds when he started in on his medical history. "....I thought it was a single hernia, but it ended up being a double...." Uhh... yeah.... TMI dude. We made the drive back home.... didn't get lost even!!! :o)

From here on, the days get a bit scrambled. We didn't have much planned after that I guess. One day we vegged around the house, another day Mom took the girls to see Shrek, while Hubby, me and the boys went to the mall, got Hubby and youngest haircuts,... We had some friends and their son over for dinner one night which was really nice..... grilled some steaks and chicken.

I think it was Thursday Hubby, Mom and I went to Memphis to Beale Street so mom could get some souveniers,... we also ate at the infamous Rendeavoux for some RIBS. OMG they are sooooo awesome!!!! They were really great people there too. The guy had pulled out a menu from under the glass on the table,... I handed it to mom, said she should take it home with her :o) "They won't mind??" "They won't know..." Chris didn't think it a good idea... so when the guy came back to the table, I asked if she could have it,... he said he could do better than that, he'd get her a new one and he'd sign it as well, and get another guy to sign it :o) (Their pics/history were on the menus) I thought that was awesome :o) We had a wonderful time tripping around there :o) Hubby surprised Mom and I both (I knew he was getting one for mom, but not for me!) and bought us mallard duck silver charms from Peabody for our charm bracelets. I thought that was awesome. Nice way for us to always remember this time together :o)

Friday, oldest had his ortho apt,..... so we went for that, then went to Waffle House and had breakfast Mmm it was good,... but dang they had it so cold in there, we were ready to order hot chocolate!!!! We left there, went to Kohls for some shopping :o) I got 2 cute pairs of capri's for cheap!!! They were having a nice sale. Oldest got 2 new shirts he was very happy with that. Mom got some capri's too :o) Ran into Target where I snuck around and bought mom a iPod Nano as a late Mother's Day gift to really spoil her :o) *hugs hubby for letting me do this* That night, the kids all went to Hubby's folks, and the 3 of us went for dinner at the 501/Omar's Steakhouse. We had a drink,.... and mom was silly and fun to be with. We laughed and while we were trying to figure out what to order, I set the wrapped present on her menu. "What's this????" "I dunno.... you gotta open it and see!" LOL She did and couldn't believe it,... she cried and got up to hug us both :o) She was sooo tickled with it. It's a pretty pink one too!! I also got her a nice case to go with it. Wanted her all set for her flight home. Hubby that afternoon, had set her up some music to get started with too :o) Our meals were GREAT. Mom and I both ordered some salmon. Different preparation, so we sampled each others. Man it was awesome!!!! Hubby got the usual :o) Cowboy Steak LOL The chef on duty that night did a GREAT job though. Whole night was wonderful. On the way home, Mom put her ear buds in and listened to her Janis Joplin that Hubby downloaded for her :o) She was totally loving it :o)

Saturday morning we were up and ready for our hair apt in Jonesboro. We grabbed a coffee on the way, got to the salon and they got started on us. I got my hair lightened and some highlights too. She did a great job on the cut and color :o) I was very pleased. We got there at 10am and left there around 2pm. Long ass day. Ran into Circuit City...... got us a new DVD player... Mom was needing the FM tuner for the iPod for her ride home from the airport in Idaho. We got home,... and then the fun began with my packing for the kids and all that fun stuff. That night we did movie night with the kids, and got Night at the Museum PPV, mom couldn't last through the entire movie,.... but it sure was cute :o) We enjoyed it lots. Sunday we took some pictures, (finally) and had everything ready to go, left 'bout 11am for the airport, got there in time to get some coffee and wait a few mins and Mom boarded the plane :o( Was ontime, 'bout 2pm. It was awful saying goodbye. Then went to the kids gate, and had to wait until about 3:30. Theirs was late due to bad weather in TX. That sucked too. Headed home, got the other 2 kids and that was it.

Spring is here!

Today is the first day of Spring. I love Spring the best I think. I enjoy the smells, the sound of the birds, how cool it feels in the morning and how nice it warms up by afternoon. The temperature is usually perfect. Or at least it was today. I can only pray that it holds up, as Spring Break is next week for the kiddos. I really REALLY want to be able to shoo them outside to play.

This evening, I took little Xena outside.....

Temp at like 9:30pm was around 65 degrees. With wet hair and shorts/Tshirt on, I was a bit chilled, but it felt good, and smelled so good.

I stood there for awhile, just listening. I love our house. I love where we're at. We're far enough away from town that it's so very quiet. Yet not too far from town that it takes hours to get the kids to school. There are some trees that are about a good block away, they stand gosh,... 30+ft high?? When the wind blows through them, it's like they're talking to you. It just sounds so relaxing. I guess it kind of reminds me of the days being at the cabin as a kid.

The moon is almost just a sliver in the sky,... it looked rather orange,... but so bright. Everything is brighter here. The stars were all shining,.... not a cloud in the sky. Just a gorgeous evening. I wish I could capture it on camera and show you.... but I thought I could at least blog about it.

Hubby is working tonight,.... one more night to go after this. I will be grateful to have him home for 4 days after this. I'm hopeful that the weather will be as nice as this so we can sit out and enjoy it together.

I guess on that note,... I'm going to bed. I've spent the last 3 days painting. The walls in the dining and kitchen are no longer the off white or almond looking color.... they're sage green :o) It looks pretty darned good. I just need to clean up everything,... and boy do we need to get some nice pictures or something on the walls. We've lived here a year this July and the only room that has something on the walls is Geoffery's room,.... some super hero posters LOL Ahh well.... plenty of other things to do first I guess. I want TREES. We don't have a single REAL tree in our yard yet.

Okay.... I'm beat. Have a great night all!!!

Been awhile!!

Hello!! Has anyone missed me??? ha! Didn't think so :o) Hubby asked me the other night if I'd messed with my blog any, and well, I said nope. I really hadn't thought much about it. Since we moved, we were without internet for a good few months,.... talk about withdrawls!!! I kinda thought, I should post some pics of the inside of the house,... and maybe try and jabber a bit. It's getting late, and I am tired, so we'll see how I do :o)

Livingroom/dining room

the boys rooms

the girls room (well, 1/2 of it)

Just a few pictures, I've yet to take any of the master bedroom/bathroom. It still amazes me that we're here sometimes. It's SOO big!!! Waking up in the morning in our big room, you'd almost think you were in a hotel room :o) It really is great!

Soon after moving in, we got to pick up the older two kids from the airport and bring them to their new home. Yes, they got to miss out on the packing and actual moving in. Lucky ducks!! Granted, I still needed their help to bring some of the junk to the new house, but the major moving was done. They were very happy,..... we all love and enjoy the house :o)

Kids started school,.... Oldest is in 11th, oldest daughter 6th, youngest daughter 3rd, and youngest son 1st. They're all doing really well too. I'm very pleased with them all the way around. Good kids :o) I'm not just saying that because I'm their mom either! :o)

Lets see,.... we've had how many holidays now??? 4th of July,.... ish,... the mosquitos really killed that for us, but we did manage to let off some fireworks here at the new house just before our actual move in and stay the night :o) We're so far away from the town, that it gets good and dark here. We're pretty well next to cotton fields. A new house was being finished just after we moved in, a new one over the fall/winter finished up this year acrossed from us, and an older one (few years?) down from us a bit. The rest is all fields. Very quiet here. Plus, because we're aways from town (3 miles) we can't get DSL. We're on wireless internet,... while it has its moments, we are NOT complaining!! Being without for a few months really sucked!!!

Thanksgiving,.... was really nice. We did the usual and go to hubby's family for lots of good eats :o) But we did another Thanksgiving here, with friends. That was really nice too.

Our 1st Christmas though, that was wonderful. The whole morning and afternoon was just great. We just didn't rush,... we took our time and let the kids enjoy their morning then we got ready and went to hubby's folks. It was just great being here. So much more room :o) Next year though, I'm using the BIG tree. I opted for the smaller, because the lights are already on it,.... and hubby was right,... the bigger one would've looked MUCH better. It sure didn't look that small in the old house LOL Oh well..... live and learn :o) Although, by now, I should know, hubby is always right!! LOL

What else??? I'm getting really tired. I do have to share though,.... Valentine's Day hubby was home. I already knew what I was getting, as we went to see her on Tuesday :o) A wee yorkie!! I'm so thrilled. She's just the cutest little thing!!! I'll post her picture too at the end of this. We get to bring her home Thursday as then she'll be nearly 9 weeks old, and will have had all her puppy shots and good stuff :o) I was very happy as hubby was home Valentine's Day, and I wanted to make it extra special. With his hours the way they are, it's hit or miss as to when he'll be home. He was working for New Years :o( I hate that. Anyhow, I had already given him one thing,.... on Tuesday,... since I knew about the puppy, I gave him his homemade gift early. I had taken a bunch of pictures of myself and put them on a card. He LOVES it :o) Made me extra happy. That morning though, I woke him with some chocolate covered strawberries, and a mimosa :o) Mmm!!! Sounds good right now even!!! I gave him his bag of goodies,.... and later fixed us a nice breakfast :o) Really was just wonderful to have that time together and enjoy the day together.

Anyhow, I'm going to add this picture and go to bed.

This is me with our Xena :o) Isn't she a doll!??!!