Together Again...

My Grandpa is home with his Heavenly Father and his beloved Betty. My Grandma passed away about 3 months ago. She never regained consciousness following a terrible car accident. My Grandpa never recovered either. If ever one could die from a broken heart, it was him.



Friday January 4th would have been their 67th wedding anniversary. Other than the war, no one can remember a day they'd ever spent apart. My mom, aunt, and Grandpa gave me my Grandma's wedding set for Christmas. I've been wearing it ever since. I'm nervous about wearing it but I can't NOT wear it. I will cherish it always.

I'm sad that he's gone but I am glad that he is home and no longer in any pain. Give your loved ones an extra hug tonight. Bye Grandma and Grandpa, I love you guys. I'm comforted knowing you'll never have to spend another day apart again.

I found this picture tucked inside their wedding invitation...this is how I will remember them.

In Recovery Mode...

We still have one more Christmas gathering to go. My dad's house tomorrow after church. But for the most part we are winding down from the Christmas festivities and trying to get back to our normal schedule. It's been hard to get back on track. It's been rainy and dreary for a week it seems. Makes it so hard to even get out of bed. But we need the rain so badly it's hard to complain about it.

We tried to scale it back on Christmas this year. There is not one thing that our kids need. The Lord has blessed us in that way. And it doesn't help that the kids have up to 5 Christmases with all the Grandparents. They were asked to only give one gift per child and so far they have done excellent.

Tim's watching the Wake game and I finally got all 365 pictures off of my camera. And I just realized I have some more on the other camera.

Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Hope you and your families had a very blessed Christmas.

Cliff Notes version

I am so exhausted. The last two days have worn me out. Here's the Cliff Notes version of the day...

Wednesday:

• up at 5:30 to be ready before the kids get up
• get all kids ready; boys in their Christmas program clothes, P.S. it's going to be nearly 80 degrees today
• Pre-school Cristmas program at 10:30
• 10:25, Cooper's teacher frantically hunts me down in the sanctuary
• 10:20 Cooper vomits all over the classroom
• 10:45 we go back home
• Cooper takes nap with the "bucket"
• 1:00 Cooper awake, Cameron down for nap
• follow Cooper around with the "bucket", thankfully he seems just fine
• 2:15 (Abbie due home in about 30 minutes) phone rings
• Abbie's teacher, "She fell on the playground and hurt her ankle. We carried her inside but now she won't get on the bus"
• I talk to Abbie trying to be a bit stern with her quietly enough so the teacher won't hear me. She's not budging.
• 2:20 wake up Cameron from his nap (he hates this), at least he's still dressed. Throw Coop in the car wearing his Buzz Lightyear jammies and Lightning McQueen slippers...and the "bucket".
• 2:35 get to the school and realize that I can't carry a 21 month old and a 7 1/2 year old at the same time.
• Lock the boys in the car and pray that I don't get a visit from social services any time soon.
• Teacher tells me that the morning story was about The Boy Who Cried Wolf....of course it was.
• Get Abbie to the car and decide that I will take her to the Dr's to get an Xray...and drag the boys along.
• Tim came to get the boys from the office.
• Nothing broken, not even a sprain, only a strain
• She walked back out to the car
• Skipping dance class tonight
• Help Tim review his presentaion
• Do a load of laundry

Thursday:

• Abbie up and about like nothing ever happened
• My coffee isn't working
• My Wellbutrin isn't working yet, only been 5 days, it takes a few weeks
• it's been a few years since I put so much faith in such a little pill
• I'm going to need more coffee
• Spent the morning making snacks for Cooper's Christmas party tomorrow
• Finally get a shower at 3:00
• Abbie has Brownies, going to take goodies bags to the nursing home and sing some songs
• Tim has study group so I have to take the boys
• Abbie gets a ride so I get to go back home
• Darn, I took a shower for nothing
• Have to go finish chocolat-ing the Peanut Butter Balls
• Start all over tomorrow....

Let the festivities begin...

First I just want to say...Whatup with my "triple trouble" picture?? I didn't change anything. I thought maybe it was one of those strange Blogger things that goes away as magically as it appeared. Any advice??? Maybe I'll just try to change the picture, who knows.

So begins the Christmas celebrations. We had 2 grown-up Christmas parties this past Friday and Saturday. We took turns. My turn was Friday, Tim's was Saturday. We are not big drinkers. Tim enjoys his wine now and then, but I save all mine up for one big blowout every year. I think I do pretty well handling my liquor for not "practicing" throughout the year, but then again, I did do my training at ECU. This year included Vodka & Blood Orange soda, Hypnotiq, Jagermeister&Root Beer, Goldschlager...I think that's all :) I remember crawling up the stairs, down the hall, and in to my bedroom and just laying on the floor. But I had fun at my once a year blow out, that's what matters! On Saturday night we went to our neighbor's house. Tim enjoyed his wine and hanging out with the guys. I'm glad he let loose and relaxed (only 2 more days in this semester, yeah!) I went home around 9:30, that's when the G'parents had to head off to their own Christmas party. Tim stayed and made it home around 12:30. The next morning he was sure he was dying. He hadn't accounted for how differently alcohol would affect him after losing 50 lbs.

So now you probably think we are big time boozers...just stressed out parents that needed to let loose.

Saturday Abbie went to Raleigh with Grammy to see High School Musical on ice with Linda and Audrey. I haven't seen any pictures yet but I there's no way 2 G'mas took their g'daughters to HSM and didn't take any pictures.

Meanwhile, I went with Grandmomma to take the boys to a lunch with Santa. I was really proud of Coop. He was scared at first but when Santa started talking to him, he jumped right up on his lap.

Let's just say that Cameron did not care for Santa. Here is what happened whe I tried to get Cam closer to Santa:

Sunday was the annual Lewisville Christmas parade. Abbie's brownie troop walked in it. I walked too and pulled Coop in the wagon. Tim watched Cameron at home but he slept the whole time. Maybe both of them slept the whole time. Next year I think Cameron will be able to sit through the whole parade and really enjoy it.

Sunday, after the parade, Abbie, Coop, and I made the Gingerbread Tree. Abbie said she wanted to do the tree this year since we've done the house for the past few years. No project that requires icing is ever complete without the final Funny Frosting Face!

And just because I know you won't be able to sleep tonight if you don't see a picture of my tree, here it is. It looks so small in a photo. It seems to be so much larger when it takes up the whole corner of the family room. Wow, I really want to slipcover my furniture.

Oh sheep, I broke my ass...

While I was putting out my Heartwood Creek Nativity, the styrofoam protector slipped out of my hand and dropped all of about 6 inches but that was enough for the donkey and shepherd to fall to the floor. Donkey's tail broke off, as did Shepherd's hand. His staff looks a little crooked, too (he-he, Lord, please forgive me :)

Resorting to Bullets...

No not that kind. When friends ask me "What's going on?" I can never really think of all that much yet, I never seem to have enough time to do all of that "nothing " that's going on.

Here's some things I have wanted to post about:

• Abbie's Thanksgiving dinner blessing that included "I'm thankful that I did not get Cameron's virus"
• I'm thankful that Cam's hand-foot-mouth virus, although pretty bad, was mainly a "cosmetic" illness. If you've ever questioned whether or not your kids have it, there will be no doubt once you've actually seen it. Cam broke out in blister-y, wart-ish bumps that were the the worst on his feet. It probably took a good month for them all to fade away.
• Abbie started dance class again. She went when she was 4 but wasn't all that thrilled. She did love the recital.
• We all got our flu shots. Cooper is the only one that had a bit of a reaction. His thigh looks red and purplish and is a bit warm to the touch. It hurts him too.
• I took Abbie to see Enchanted. It was a cute movie. On Black Friday I got her a Princess Giselle nightgown/dress-up for Christmas at a really good price.
• I got the Deceptively Delicious cookbook and I'm eager to try new ways to sneak veggies into my kids' meals.
• We went to Portrait Innovations to get the kids' Christmas portrait made this year. As happy as I was with the portraits we made in August, I was as equally disappointed with these. They were running about 40 minutes late, I REALLY hate that, but I do understand that all kids are not as cooperative as mine, yeah right! There was only ONE picture of the 3 of them that was even close to acceptable for the Christmas card. I should have gotten up and walked out with NOTHING, but then that would have been a complete waste of 2 hours of our day and I still wouldn't have any Christmas pictures because they were booked up solid for the next 2 weeks. So any of you reading this that will get a Christmas card from me...You have been forewarned, I don't want to hear about how this wasn't such a great photo...this one isn't smiling, that one should have moved over a bit, so-and-so's hair is messed up. I ALREADY KNOW!

Merry Christmas :)

Got my baby fix...

I went to meet my college friend Denise and her 6 week old baby boy today. It's a rainy yucky day. We were going to go shopping but it is an outdoor shopping center so we just sat and talked at the restaurant.

MMmmm, babies. He was soo cute. Perfect little round head and little lips and nose. He looks just like his middle brother. I wanted to hold him longer but he was hungry. Momma says he's always hungry. Got my fix though, I definitley don't want to go back to the baby days. I'm not sure if I'll make it through these three kids without the kind of help available only by prescription.

Quiet Thanksgiving

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home, pretty much what we were trying for. We both needed some "chillaxation" time. I didn't cook...ordered out a whole Turkey dinner. It was wonderful. Tim actually took some time off from studying. We're talking a few hours, not a few days, are you kidding? He took a couple of bike rides and a couple of naps. But now it's back to the real world. He's even down stairs right now studying for finals. Judging from the names of his classes next semester, we are both hoping that they are a little bit less challenging :)

I am Thankful for the beautiful and healthy family that God has blessed me with and a husband that loves us and takes such good care of us.

Thanksgiving Feast

Today was the Family Thanksgiving Feast for the 4 year-olds at Pre-School. Grammy went with us but Daddy was working out of town and couldn't make it. Cooper is just my sweetest boy. He actually thanked me for coming.

They sang a couple of cute little songs:

Miss Manners

Abbie's Brownie Mtg last night was a Manners and Etiquette class taught by a professional Etiqette Consultant. I had to laugh though, because her name is Chris Rock!! It was at the Country Club and they got all fancied up.

I realized that other than her Christmas outfit (which I didn't want to risk getting messed up) she doesn't have any "nice" winter dresses. Oh well. She picked out her favorite Spring dress, who cares if it was in the 40's. She wanted to wear the sparkly red dress she wore for Halloween, but I thought that might be a bit over the top. I should have let her. There's no way she could have been more over the top than this dress...I hope I don't have to point it out.

I didn't get to stay this time so I was pleased to see the pictures that one of the moms took. Abbie was right by Chris's side taking it all in. Last night she showed me the proper way to hold your fork. Who knew?

Brownie Meeting

Last night was Brownies. One of the activities was making a "Dream Journal". The girls made drawings and entries about dreams they've had.

Abbie announced that she doesn't have dreams, she has visions. She is going to call hers a "Vision Journal".

When it was time to share her Dream...I mean Vision Journal, she yet again shocked me. I nearly fell out when she said this in front of 15 girls and most of their moms and even a few dads: (I know about Nicholas, but I'm not even allowed to speak his name)

Abbie: I love a boy named Nicholas and I had a dream that we kissed and got married. Oh and I also dreamed about some squirrels hibernating.

WHAAAAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I was still in shock that she was saying this in front of all these people and then she thows out the squirrel thing. I nearly burst out laughing, I had to bite my tongue.

She drew a picture of them kissing. She's in a wedding dress and he's in a tux. She has a lady bug sticker, and he has a spider sticker.

Later, on the ride home she explained to me that she was glad that God gave her visions. That way she would know what was going to happen later in the day.

Oh, now I understand :)

Halloween

We had fun Trick-or-Treating. Abbie wanted to be a movie star so we used her dress-ups as her costume. I decided I'd take her to Spa-La-Di-Da for her hair, make-up, and mani-pedi. $40 later and I won't be doing that again. Now I can at least say that I've taken her and she'll (hopefully) stop bugging me about it.

Cooper wanted to be Thomas-Again! Up until a few days ago it was the Race Car Driver that I bought last year that has yet to be worn outside the house. Oh well.

Poor Cam is stuck with the Dog costume that I got for Cooper 2 years ago that he wouldn't wear and ended up as Bob the Builder. Cam wore the dog costume around the house several times, he seemed to like it. He LOVES dogs.

Gram & Pap came by and it's a good thing because Cam opted out of the festivities. He ran from the house ready to go, but when we got him in the wagon and headed out he freaked and wanted out. He ran back to the house and ended up staying with the Grands and handing out candy.

Abbie and her friend Meredith had lots of fun. It wasn't too hot or too cold. Other than our neighbors giving out really great candy that I am far too tempted to pig out on, I have no complaints!!

More from Cooper...

Wendy's Chicken Nuggets VS. McDonald's Chicken Nuggets...

"Hey, there's Chicken in there!"


Cooper needed a tissue so I directed him towards the toilet paper but the roll was empty (imagine that). So I told him just to grab a Kandoo wipe. He started to cry.

"Honey just grab a Kandoo, it's okay. All the toilet paper is downstairs."

"But mommy, (picking up the tub and "reading" the back) it says these are only for wiping your butt."

I had to look at the tub. Sure enough, the cartoon frog was indeed wiping his butt!

Tagged!

I blog in my head every day. Just recently it has been hard to get it on the "page". By the time I end the day (does it ever really end???) I'm just too tired. And the new shows have started so now I'm getting hooked on mindless stuff.

I've been tagged to reveal 7 random things 'bout myself, thanks cous.

1. Since I was just talking about my TV shows, I figured I'd admit a guilty pleasure. The show that I feel most embarrassed about watching is America's Next Top Model. It comes on at 8:00 so Abbie is supposed to be in bed, but if she happens to get out of bed I immediately change the channel. Trying to raise a daughter in this Photoshopped beauty-obsessed culture I don't think I need to explain any further.

2. I wish I was a little more Type A. I would rather be a neat freak than the I-don't-give-a-crap-It-will-still-be-there-tomorrow type that I am most of the time.

3. Once in a while I'll let the kids eat snacks for dinner. Goldfish, cookies, yogurt, pudding...whatever. Especially if Tim is going to be late and I don't want to cook. I've tried to start buying the organic stuff. Doesn't that make it better???

4. I'm going to join a neighborhood Bunko group. We're starting in January. Have no idea how to play, nor do I know anyone in the group very well. But I'm really excited about a regularly scheduled girls' night out on the 3rd Friday of the month!

5. Tim and I want to renew our vows in October 2009. Totally random date. August 24th, 2008 will be our 15th, but he won't be completely done with MBA school until Jan or Feb of 2009. Then can't do anything until Tax Season is over. I'm sorry, but August is just too freakin' hot. (We only picked August because he was home on leave for 2 weeks) So that takes us in to the Fall. Late October, on the terrace at one of the local Yadkin Valley wineries sounds just right to me. Surely much better that the first time at Wedding Chapel By the Sea with no friends or family there. I also don't see a problem with having 2 Anniversary dates :)

6. I need to go work out. Sadly, I've only AVERAGED once a week since the beginning of August.

7. I've been reading one of Dr. Christine Northrop's books. I saw her on Oprah. An M.D. that believes in the mind-body-spirit holistic approach. Interesting. I'm trying to do what I can to make us a healthier family (remember the organic cookies I serve for dinner). At 850+ pages, I haven't done the cover-to-cover thing, I just go to the index and find what I'm looking for. Plus, I can skip over the chapters on fertility and chidbearing, woo-hoo!


Thanks Melynie that was fun. I think over all I must be pretty boring though. It took far too long for me to think of 7 things to say about myself.


Just one more thing...

Abbie is going to do a Flat Stanley project in the next few weeks. We got the info today. They want the kids to mail Stanley on an adventure to friends or family. Even before I found out that I'd been tagged, I was thinking that it would be fun for us to send Flat Stanley to Aunt Melynie's house to visit "Balie, Mkina, and Brook" (as spelled by Abbie on her What I did this Summer paper). Get ready for some company!!

Family Fun Night

Family Fun Night is the Fall Festival at Abbie's school. It's tomorrow night. Every class has a carnival style game in their room. The 4th and 5th graders have group games, one is a Mad Scientist Lab this year. Tim will be in class so I'm taking Abbie and Coop while G'parents watch Crazy Man. Grammy asked why I'm not taking him. "Because I want to have fun," I responded. Pretty sure Grammy is going to come with us, maybe Pappy, too.

Here's the pumpkin Abbie made for the pumpkin decorating contest. No carved pumpkins allowed. After we took this picture Abbie decided she didn't like the eyes. I wiped off the eyes (God bless Baby Wipes) and grabbed one of my older coats out of the closest and we used real buttons for the eyes. Much better!! I'll have to get another picture.

Since I couldn't volunteer on-site as much this year with Tim's school schedule I decided to send things in instead: drinks, 2 cakes (bake sale and cake walk), and a CD for the High School Musical Chairs game Abbie's class is doing. I spent nearly all day so far making a Brown Sugar Pound Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze, see sample recipe #3 (I split the recipe into 2 8x8 pans). I've never tried it before. But if the pieces I had to trim away to get the lids on are any indication of the rest of the cake, I will be making it again very soon. Only thing I will do differently is the glaze. Calls for 3 cups of powdered sugar. I'd stop at 2 cups and adjust from there to desired consistency and taste. 3 cups made it too dry/crumbly and too sweet instead of more buttery/caramelly. I even downloaded some recipe card templates and attached the recipe and a festive bow.

Who do I think I am, Martha Stewart?? I wish! Mostly because she has some poor schlump to clean up after her. Sorry, no pictures of that!

Here is the finished result alongside Cooper's painted pumpkin.

Thanks for the birthday messages. We didn't go to the football game. 80 dgrees is just NOT football weather. That just left extra Magarita time!!!

Love, Cooper

Cooper has been saying some cute things lately. Here are some of my favorites.



...when something doesn't go quite right:

"That always happens sometimes!"


... on eating too much:

"Cooper, you can't have 9 chicken nuggets, that's too much. Your belly will get too big and full."

(while looking at my stomach) "So momma, did you eat too much?"

...on quantitative analysis:

"Momma, who's gonna be at Family Fun Night?"

"Everybody, honey!"

"Who else?"

Just one more

...on finances:

"Momma, Abbie just gots 59 (webkinz) monies!!"

"She got 59 (webkinz) Dollars?"

"No, not dollars, just 59 monies."

I'm 35 today...

It's my birthday. I haven't posted in a while and I thought it would be bad if I let my birthday go by without some kind of acknowledgement. 35, hmmm. Not sure what to say about that. I don't feel 35, yet I FEEL 35, especially getting out of bed in the morning. Tim gave me a card last night. I may have mentioned it before but he picks out good cards. I giggled about this one though. To paraphrase, it talked about how "hubby" wanted to buy fancy, expensive gifts for "wife" but knew that what would make "wife" happy was Love, Quality Time, and "The Little Things". I said to him, "So this means I'm not getting a real present from you, right?" Ha-Ha :) I buy my own presents anyways. Cuts down on the returns.

This morning I heard Abbie get up so I treated myself to an extra Snooze. She came in a few minutes later and wished me Happy Birthday. She microwaved me some pancakes and wanted to surprise me. She's such a sweet girl when she wants to be.

We're celebrating my b-day with friends tomorrow night. We all went to High School together so we decided to go to the Homecoming game. I think it will be a lot of fun, even if it does make us feel ancient. We're planning to go get dinner and drinks after the game, I may need a double!!

Can't blame it on the kids

I was running late this morning. Pushed the garage door button, started the car, checked the clock: 9:04. Pre-school drop-off starts at 9:00. Put the car in reverse, release the brake, check the rearview mirror, hit the gas...maybe a little too hard in my quest to make up for the 10 minutes that had somehow escaped me this morning. CRUNCH$%@CRASH*&^%CRACKLE. Although I did not notice either the motor noise from the rising garage door or the door itself still visible in the rear view mirror, it was in fact still there! Yes it was. And I smacked it good. Bent up the entire bottom panel and popped it completely out of the track. The door won't budge a bit in either direction.



The "spoiler" thingy on the top of my rear door is busted and the brake light fell out.



It startled me and the boys started crying because it scared them. Then Cooper realized it meant he wasn't going to school today so he cried some more. Later, he told me that we have sidewalks so we could still walk to school. Yeah right. I am soo ticked/pissed/mad at myself I just can't seem to snap out of it.

Upon closer inspection of the spoiler-thingy I could see where the contact was made. After applying some scientific theory analysis formula that I have osmosed (is that a word?) from my MBA student hubby, I have concluded that a time delay equal to "1 freakin'one-thousand" would have saved me some big-time frustration.



I spend most days at home but it's totally different being trapped here. Today I was going to run a couple of frivolous errands. I'm a total "happened for a reason" girl. So I've been thinking about how being stuck at home may have prevented something else from happening today. And I totally figured it out: God really did not want me to buy Abbie any more Webkinz.

4:00- The garage door repairman came to check it out. He's seen much worse. He and Tim got the van outside and put the door down. Less than $200 to fix. That's a relief, but we haven't priced the spoiler-thingy yet either.

Cooper is such a sweet boy. He's my "pleaser" child. He tugged at my pant leg and looked up at me nodding his head knowingly, "It's gonna be alright Mommy. It goes up and down now. Daddy fixed it, see." He just gave me that grin of his and my heart melted. He knew I was upset about it all day. I still sort of am but I'm getting over it. It helped when I got this YouTube video email from my friend.

Here's some Total Momsense

What is wrong with me??

I ate lunch today...twice! I went to eat lunch with Abbie today. We both bought our lunch. What a trip going through the elementary school lunch line again. It was pizza day!! Yeah! But my crazy daughter prefers the "chikin" patty sandwich. I don't know anout her sometimes. I wanted to bring her something but she eats lunch at 10:40 so I'd have to bring her breakfast.

Abbie, Reagan, and Samantha...



So back to the point of this post. I sit down to eat lunch with my daughter at 10:50 and about an hour and a half later I'm with the boys and going to get Mexican with my in-laws, comletely forgetting that I had already eaten lunch. The worst part is that I ate my whole chimichanga and I wasn't even really hungry! Thank goodness it was a lunch-sized portion. Honestly, I was already driving home when I realized that I had just eaten my second lunch of the day. It's catching up with me now, I'm pretty miserable and my pants are feeling a bit snug, imagine that!

I'm dumbfounded that I did that. I can't believe that within an hour after leaving the elementary school lunchroom I was sitting down to eat again. I guess next week I'll be cranking it up a notch on the cardio :(

Best License Plate

I pulled up behind a Ford Excursion at a stop light this week. I laughed out loud as this was what I read on the license plate...

PPB4WEGO

Ben, Laurin, & Cooper

Ben, Laurin, & Cooper, originally uploaded by Smith Family Pix.

Cameron

Cameron, originally uploaded by Smith Family Pix.

First Day of Preschool

My boys, originally uploaded by Smith Family Pix.

Cooper talked about school for the enire 2 days between Open House and the official first day. He was so excited he could not stand it. So nothing major to report for him other than he is so glad to be back at school.
Cameron was the biggest news. I knew it had the possibility of being really ugly so I made sure we had the passy and blankie even though we don't normally take those out of the bed. I think it made a huge difference in his comfort level. He went right on in and started playing. He whined just a bit when I said BYE, but went right back to his toys. Some of the moms hung out in the hall for a few minutes. There were several kids really screaming. I was worried that it would spook Cameron a bit so I took my turn peeking in the window but he was a champ, just doing his thing and checking out all the new stuff to play with.
It was a short day, only 2 hours. Cameron really turned on the pity party when I walked in the room. He immediately started the "fake cry" and threw himself at my feet as if to say "It was so awful here. I can't believe you left me here with these rotten people". See you Monday morning :)

I'm ready for Fall

Got tired of the pink stuff. I'm so ready for Fall so I decided to re-decorate my blog to go with the season. I also got some new Fall/Winter clothes. Don't get too excited. If it weren't for Wal-Mart and Costco I'd spend a lot of time nek-ked (EEK, I haven't gone to the gym nearly enough for that). I used to like Sam's clothes better but now I'm leaning towards Costco. And yes, I had to get 7 pairs of pants-they are different colors-because they are absolutely the best jeans/pants (2% lycra) on earth and this year they had them in petite length!!! I was ecstatic! They fit me perfectly-that NEVER happens. So I can finally get rid of a few pairs of my old pants.

Mommy's toy store

Today we drove to Charlotte to go to this mall we've never been to before. Last night I checked out the website to find out what stores they had and-cue the choir- "Hallelujah", there is a Sephora. That is my candy store. I'm a Health and Beauty junkie. I decided to do some shopping online last night to get my wish list together or else I get in the store and all the pretty colors and shiny lights short cicuit my brain and I just wander around going "Ooh" and "Aah" and before too long I can hear Cameron screaming from his stroller somewhere out in the mall and I know I have about 5 minutes until Tim comes to drag me out of the store. Then I'm out in the car and I remember something I had wanted to look at. Bummer. Not this time. I walked in and pulled out my list and the sales people just backed out of my way! Make no mistake, I still got distracted but this time I had my list to get me back on track and I made it out with only what was on my list-actually less- and of course me free deluxe sample!

Abbie wanted to come in with me this time. She wanted some lip gloss. She had her allowance money and it was burning a hole. I talked her into waiting to get some American Girl lip gloss at Bath & Body, and it was on sale! Gotta love that!

It was a fun day-at least for me :) I was really in a mood to buy something and I think I got it out of my system. For now.

First day of 2nd Grade

new 025, originally uploaded by Smith Family Pix.

Abbie wanted Daddy to take her to school on the first day. Today is day 3 and it seems to be going well for her. Now, if I could just get my act together! Only 9 more days until the boys go back :)

Abbie's first day of 2nd grade

I missed my favorite Staples commercial this year...It's the most wonderful time of the year!! Abbie was nervous about school today. She has 2 boys in her class from last year and that's it. None of the girls. She knows a couple of girls through friends and one girl joined Abbie's brownie troop at the end of school last year so they really didn't get to know each other then.
We had a teacher change 2 days before open house. I'm actually quite excited about Abbie's teacher this year. She's from here and Tim and I went to school with her and her husband. She just finished her master's degree and seems well organized and communicative. My main complaint from the last 2 years is that I felt like I didn't know what was going on. I'm not a "No news is good news" kind of mom. I don't want to find out about possible issues by reading Abbie's report card.
Today they brought home kid version day planners-SO COOL! I love it! On the company Website it says this version is for Kgarten. But I think 7 is a better age. I don't think Abbie would have been ready to learn the concept of a day planner 2 years ago.

Fourteenth Anniversary

On the 24th Tim and I celebrated our 14th anniversary. Wow. I'm sort of speechless. Tim wrote me a very sweet card. He's a good card-picker, not so much with jewelry, but good with cards. And he gave me a day at the spa! I can't wait to use it, but I want to wait until I really feel like I need a break. Right now I'm pretty good so I don't want to waste it! I got him some shirts and I gave them to him last week.
I commemorated the day by taking the kids to Portrait_Innovations and had portraits made of them together. It's the first time I've had them done with all 3 of them. 18 months and this is the first time, whew, time has really flown by.
Then we went out to our favorite restaurant, Bonefish_Grill.

Cooper Turned Four :)

My sweet boy is Four years old! He is very polite and kind of shy. He still loves his trains and trucks and can play with them for hours without a peep. He started soccer this week. I think we'll all enjoy it more when it is cooler outside.

Last weekend we kicked off Cooper's 4th birthday weekend with a family dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Lots of fun! Cameron was once again the entertainment for the evening. He ate a whole bowl of cheese dip with his hands. He was covered in cheese from his forehead to his elbows. This photo was in the early part of the meal.

Sunday we celebrated with the rest of the family and then on Monday we finally had the "real" party, the one with the pinata. It was so hot that day that it took the kids all of about 5 minutes to crack it open, grab some loot, and high-tail it back inside.

Cameron's milestones

Yesterday was quite a day for my little man. Every time I turned around he was doing something else that I told myself I need to document.

I got him out of bed in the morning and he ran down the hall towards the kitchen saying "Waa-Faa" (waffle). It's his favorite breakfast of all time.

When we got dressed I put the boys in their soccer ball shirts in honor of Coop's first soccer practice that night. Cameron kept pointing at the ball on his shirt. I was repeating "Ball" and also doing the sign for ball and he did both back to me several times.

Abbie taught him to dance. He was so funny bouncing around and stomping his feet. She said she heard him say "Dats" but I missed that while I was getting the camera which, of course, had dead batteries.

Cooper did a great job at his first soccer practice. I was really proud of him. But Cameron was the one that really surprised everyone. He sat patiently in the stroller for about 10 minutes and when I finally let him out he went straight for a soccer ball and went dribbling down the field like an old pro. I couldn't keep him off the field or out of the goal. I wonder if this will hold his interest throughout the season. We'll see.

After we got home it was time for baths and bed. When I was in Cameron's room he walked up to his dresser and touched the Train pull knobs and started going "Choo-Choo". He went and got his Thomas book and flipped through it saying "Choo-Choo" over and over. I did the sign for book and he did it the best he has ever done it.

He's growing up so fast and and learning so quickly now it's making my head spin.

Abbie the drama queen

A little over an hour ago, a sniffling Abbie quickly exited the playroom and went into her room where she continued to whimper for a minute and then she came back out. This was the conversation

Me: Are you okay? Are you crying? What's wrong?

Abbie: It's just... that... Troy and Gabrielle broke up and I can't believe it. It was awful. You should have heard them.

I couldn't help but laugh but I sucked it back in and tried to assure her that there was plenty of time left for them to get back together (which they did) before the movie was over.

(In case you don't have a pre-tween-ager, Troy and Gabrielle are characters in the Disney movie High School Musical. High School Musical 2 premiered tonight and I let her stay up late to watch it.)

Orientation Week

Orientation Week is finally over. 18 hour days for Tim. He's used to working long hours but not while being force fed the volume of information they went through this week. I know he came home at night and slept in our bed but we basically considered him to be out of town. Cooper thought he actually was on a business trip. Out the door by 6:30, not home until 11:30.

Now we can start trying to get settled into the "regular" school schedule, every other Friday and Saturday for the next 17 months. That's the easy part. The hard part is going to be study time. It will be hard when he's home but not really home because he's got to study. I think the kids will understand...eventually. The program director shared an anecdote: one student made a deal with his kids that when daddy was wearing his ball cap, i.e. his Thinking Cap, then that meant he was doing his homework and he could not be interrupted. I thought that was cute. At least we have the basement and Tim can hole himself up down there out of reach.

Here we go, off into MBA land. It's going to be a long tiring trip but we'll get through it.

Random Thoughts...

• 10 days until Cooper turns 4. Last night he told me he wants a pinata at his party. He wants a "Cars" pinata and he would try to find out which store had them for me.
• I thought we were going to get a trampoline for Cooper's birthday. Tonight on the local news they had a story on the dangers of, you guessed it, trampolines. Now I'm having second thoughts.
• I measured all 3 kids today. Coop and Cam are pretty much the same at the 18 month mark.
• I went to get my hair done today. Low-lights this time to cut down on the blonde. Not liking it right now.
• Cam is getting more and more "interactive" every day. Today, I blew in his hair a little and he turned to me and blew back at me. He started blowing on his food too. We were playing trains in his room this morning with the door closed. I put the train in the tunnel and said, "Who's there"? He got up and went to the door and knocked on it.
• His favorite thing to say is "Where'd go?, there is." He says it pretty clearly too.
• I asked Cooper again why he won't sit down on the floor to put on his underwear & pants. This time he said, "Because I don't want to get hair on my butt like you and Daddy".
• The other day I heard a ruckus in the playroom and then some crying. Abbie came and announced to me that she hurt her penis.
• Cameron loves vacuum cleaners. My regular vacumm has the air vent in the front and I have a really hard time vacuuming because he stands in front of it to feel the "wind". I have to run from room to room and he'll chase me and try to get in front of the vacuum. Guess he'll have to go to the playroom while I vacuum. Or I'll just give him the stick vac. He thinks it is his. This is the look you'll get if you try to take it away:

August is speeding by already

August 6th wow. This is going to be a busy month...

Tim has already started a prep class before the official first day of MBA school starts on the 13th. Orientaion week. A full week of "class" just to get you ready for the real thing. The week culminates on Friday the 17th with several student/spouse events, one of which is a seminar to prepare you for what your spouse is getting into. I'm beginning to see a pattern here...duh...and it makes me a little nervous. The next 18 months will be interesting. Maybe I'll get the chance to meet some other wives and we can make the best of it together.

I joined a gym last week. Tim has dropped 35 pounds in the last few months and I have been wanting to jump on his bandwagon, ha-ha, but just haven't felt like I was ready to make a committment to an excerice program. I finally felt a change come over me (no not the change) and now I am ready to be healthier. I know a lot about what I should be doing to maintain a healthier lifestyle. I am trying to get more fruits and veggies and "superfoods" into our meals. But I find it far too difficult to exclude goodies from the menu. I like to eat. I like food. I like cheese and chocolate and ice cream. It's a good thing that I also do actually like to excercise. I just find it too hard to do it in the comfort of my own home. I have to get out of the house and go somewhere (air-conditioned) away from the dirty bathroom and the pile of laundry that continue to haunt me. I was going to wait until the kids were back in school but I was ready now!
Cooper will turn 4 on the 20th. My big boy. He's so sweet and laid back. I look at his big blue eyes and those long eyelashes and he just melts my heart. This picture is from 2 years ago but it is still one of my favorites of him.

Tim and I will celebrate our 14th anniversary on the 24th. I'm proud of that. Not just proud of the number but proud of us and our journey. We were so young (20), so broke, and so naively determined. We had our goals and we just set about achieving them-together-oblivious to the fact that many people fail somewhere along the way. Of course there have been some disappointments but I, ever the optimist, believe that things happen the way God intends for them to happen. It's up to us to learn from the situations He puts us in and take each lesson learned with us to the next thing on the list.

Abbie's school starts on the 27th and Open House is the 22nd. We should get the letter telling us who her teacher is the week before that. Abbie is hoping for this one teacher that she really likes. I haven't made a big deal about it to her. I think there are only 5 2nd grade teachers and I hear they are all very good so my opinion has always been that whatever teacher we get is the one God meant for us to have. I'm learning more as a parent each year too. I know from the last 2 years what I didn't like about those teachers, so I think I'll be a bit more outspoken this year.

So that about does it for the month of August. If I don't make it back to my blog in the near future at least you'll know what I've been up to!

Trying to figure out Flickr

I got an album posted on Flickr last night but now I'm having trouble getting more photos uploaded today. I'm also getting frustrated with posting photos in my blog entry. I'm tired of doing it one picture at a time. There has to be an easier way to post several pix at a time and I just haven't figured it out yet. I have picasa. There's a photo blogger in there. Maybe I'll try that one again. I could only do 4 at a time I think. It doesn't help that I am so tired and I have a terrible headache so I think I'll try again later.

On Vacation

On Vacation, originally uploaded by Smith Family Pix.

At the Liberty Bell

Abbie was so excited to see the Liberty Bell. For months, She has been telling people that she was going to see it this summer.

MG_1131, originally uploaded by Smith Family Pix.

Getting back on track

I've halfway unpacked from our trip to Philly/NJ to see my family. Tim headed right back out of town Monday morning and will probably be back tomorrow, we'll see. We were out all day yesterday at a play date and then the grocery store to re-stock the house. Today we went to the pool. The suitcases can wait until tomorrow.

We had a great time catching up with my aunt and cousins. We went sightseeing in the historic district in Philadelphia. Then to the Philly Zoo. And wrapped up with a day at Six Flags in NJ. All the little ones got along well and had lots of fun. I'm so exhausted though. I'm remembering why we haven't gone on a vacation in a couple of years.

I finally caved

I finally caved to the peer pressure. I took Cameron for his first haircut. I wasn't ready for my baby to get his big-boy hair cut. The back of his hair was growing longer but the front wasn't. So, of course, he was getting teased about his "baby mullet".

Abbie and Cooper started VBS yesterday. After I dropped them off, we made the drive to Great Clips for the big event. He wasn't sure about sitting in that big chair so I caved, again, and gave him a sucker.

Suckers make everything better.

The stations at this Great Clips were so small that I couldn't even stand beside the chair to get a decent picture. I had to take them reflected in the mirror. Oh well at least I got some kind-of-okay shots.

Yeah! Safe in the car. Boy am I glad that's over. And I even get to keep my sucker!

Sorry Cam-Cam, it was almost gone any way and you were starting to eat the stick.

Our new arrivals

This Summer we have enjoyed having a new family move in with us. On June 30, I noticed a bird's nest in a wall planter right outside our front door. On my tippy-toes I peeked inside and to my delight, were 3 of the most beautiful robin eggs I've ever seen. The blue was just magnificent.

And the next day...there were 4!!

On July13, at 5:00, we had the first two arrivals...

By 8:00, we welcomed number 3...

And eventually number 4.

I decided to give them a few days to bond as a new family. We try to give them as much privacy as possible, but-hello-it is our front door. Momma bird has been a very good momma. She is never too far away as evidenced by the squawking we hear from the nearby oak tree every time we venture to the mailbox. Or every time I want to snap a new photo.

This morning when I snapped the last shots I was attacked by a Japanese Beetle. So between a protective momma robin and hundreds of Japanese beetles, I will be surrendering my front yard for the time being.

Organize my thoughts

I can't believe how life just takes over when you're not looking. Here's how I've been spending the last 2 weeks:

On the day of my last post, almost 2 weeks ago, my G'parents were making the move up here from FL to move in with my aunt and have the support of their family in their "twilight" years. Near Savannah, GA they wrecked their car and my G'ma has been in ICU on a ventilator since then. Just last night we started getting more promising news. She's awake, smiling, recognizing faces. She was supposed to have surgery sometime today to fix a broken humerus. They are saying that if she continues to do this well maybe they can transfer her closer to home for the remainder of her recovery within a week or so.

I had to cancel the "official plans" for Abbie's birthday party because 3 of her friends weren't going to be able to make it. There were no other weekends in July that were open so instead of pushing into August, we just combined her party with our July 4th cookout. She was thrilled that we got to have fireworks for her "birthday".

On her actual birthday we spent half the day at pre-op visits for her and Cooper's tonsillectomies. :( Boo! They got teddy bears, coloring books, and crayons. One of the nurses was so sweet, she surprised Abbie with a piece of chocolate cake complete with candle and 3 forks. :) Yeah! Oh, was I supposed to get a bite too? I was lucky to make it out with both arms intact.

Then the July 4th cookout/Abbie's birthday party :

The next morning was Tonsillectomy Day!

BEFORE...They were so good. No tears at all. I didn't realize until after the fact that the "drink" they got in pre-op was a sedative. Nurses are so smart. But hey, where was mine??

AFTER....I was so glad that the Dr. agreed to let us go home. He really wanted us to stay over night but I really didn't see the point. We all did much better being at home. I actually had to throw myself in front of the fridge to slow them down. They were starving.

The staff prepared me (or was it scared me) well for the post-op care. We are now on day 6. It has definitely been painful for them. And painful for me to watch. I've had them on the narcotic pain med for 6 days now and that's enough. It tastes awful and it seems to cause more trouble than it's worth just trying to get them to take it. So we switched to Tylenol today and it seems to do the trick just as well.

The day after "Tonsil Day" was Tim's last day ever having to report to a "boss", unless of course you count me. We are now officially among the self-employed. We already have someone lined up to take over the family business when we are ready to retire...

Whew, I feel better now after purging the last 2 weeks from my brain. Until next time...