Cheap Gas!

Another gorgeous day here in the deep south. Once Emily got out of school the kids decided to play outside. Emily grabbed a towel and sunbathed in our driveway while her brother decided to take his little red car for a spin. He had to gas it up before he drove and I noticed that Little Tikes had printed 3.29 for a price on the gas. What a bargain! I only wish that I could get gas at Casey's gas station!

Your Daddy is a BLACK shoe not a BROWN shoe.

Having been in the Navy for so long there are things that you learn that not the average person on the street knows. One thing is that chiefs aboard ships wear black shoes and that cheifs on air patrols wear brown shoes. Well I bet you are thinking does this story have a meaning well yes it does... Emily had a field trip today to the Pensacola Naval Air Museum. She came home with a little magnet of naval wings. I didnt want to break her heart but her Daddy would be mortified if I put that up. It is kinda like Auburn and Alabama football for you southern folks LOL. I told her before she went about the black shoe brown shoe thing. She was sure she was going to pipe up today and say "MY DADDY IS A BLACK SHOE!" Well it never happened. I will be hanging my little magnet on the fridge only when Chris isnt looking. LOL!!

HaPPy BIrtHdaY MEG!!

Today is my cousin Meaghan's birthday. Since we both grew up being only children (at least until my parent's divorce) she is like my little sister. I miss her terribly and cant believe I am missing seeing her little girls grow up. Little does she know that I scrap most of the pictures that she emails me. I may not know the girls personally but I have them in my scrapbooks. I hope that one day soon we will raising our kids together. Until then, I wish her a very Happy 31st and send her ((((HUGS)))) from down south. Love ya girl!

Can I tell you how much I hate....

school projects! Emily has a project due in PACE tomorrow. She had to do a powerpoint presentation and make a Puerto Rican food. First let me tell you that I have no idea how to do powerpoint. I am pretty computer iliterate when it comes to those programs. I thought it was going to be quite an experience. My daughter proved me wrong. She sat down to the computer and changed fonts, backgrounds, added music and photos. Needless to say, she blew me away with her computer knowledge. Next came my part which is to make something to eat from Puerto Rico. I found a recipe for Coconut kisses. Well after making that recipe I realized that it didnt turn out the way it should. It would never thicken up even after many spoonfulls of corn starch. I threw that batch away in an angered huff! I then had to find another recipe and bake that up. Well they seem to be better. Except for the fact that I cant cook supper until these darn things get done! Emily and Casey tried them and I got two thumbs up! At least I didnt get some weird country where I would have to make something really complicated. LOL!

A Wonderful Weekend for my girly

Emily got to spend Friday and Saturday with her best friend Abbie. It was her birthday and they had a sleep over. Then on Saturday the two went to High School Musical on Ice followed by chinese food. Emily told me that is was AWESOME! I am glad that she got to go to the show. These two have been friends since Kindergarten and remain best friends to this day. Abbie was diagnosed with diabetes back in Kindergarten and Emily really takes good care of her and makes sure that her sugar levels are in check. She really loves Abbie and loves spending time with her family.

My kids are Crazy!!

The things that my two kids come up with amaze me. They both have an active sense of imagination. I am thankful that they can dream up little games to keep themselves occupied. I dont know where they get it, it must be from the Dad gene. I only wish that I had someone to dress up and play with when I was growing up. These two will have memories that will last a lifetime. This picture was taken a couple of months ago but it still makes me laugh. Casey looks like he has had a little too much to drink and Emily looks like she could bite your head off LOL!

Watch out Papi!

Ok for those of you that dont follow Boston Red Sox baseball, Papi is David Ortiz who is their DH.

Casey is starting to like baseball. He got a glove and ball for Easter. The only problem is that his hand is still too tiny even though the glove has velcro on it. He has really liked the bat and ball that I got him a couple of weeks ago. We were playing in our living room for a while, I know I am asking for something to be broken by doing this. So yesterday was a beautiful day and we decided to take our game outside. Casey definately looked the part! He swung the bat approxiatemately three times and then ran off to get into his little red car. So much for being the next DH for the Boston Red Sox!

He has finally gotten rid of his purse!

Casey has quite a collection on Matchbox size cars that he likes to carry around with him. It all started with a little garbage man truck that got lost at our friend Kim's house under her daughter's bed. After that experience Casey decided to take his cars in a bag with him. Well I didnt want to have him carry a purse and I had nothing for him to carry them in so he carried them in a DOP kit that came with our luggage. It did look like he was carrying a purse though. Gram Gram saw this and decided that he needed something else for his cars. Thanks to Gram Gram's wonderful talent he now has a backpack with his initial on it. That Gram Gram is great when it comes to monogramming and sewing. Casey even got to pick out the fabric. Actually he wouldnt let us leave Hancock Fabric without this fabric. Now no more girly purse, he is all BOY with his backpack.

Put a fork in it...Its done!

Well Emily's room is finally done. We got the bed in on Friday and she slept in it Friday night. When Gram Gram was down on Saturday, she got her a purple rug and a purple lamp shade to finish it off. She loves it and seems to be in there alot more. She even makes her bed every morning (we will see how long that lasts!). She has purchased some fabric to make her own pillows for the bed so I guess we will be tweaking the room for some time to come.

Now my focus is on Casey's room and getting him into the big boy bed that sissy passed down to him. I need to get him sheets and a bedspread and get him potty trained too! I still cant believe that he is going to be three in a couple of months and that she is going to be nine. I feel so old!

Doctor's Visit

Emily woke up Saturday morning with an infected thumb. Her skin around her thumb nail was white with a red outline. Chris noticed it immediately and Emily decided that she needed to go to the doctor. It was a busy Saturday to fit a doctor's visit in but we did it.
Emily wouldnt allow Chris or I to touch her thumb and was saying "ow" when ever we tried to touch it. Well that changed once the doctor touched it. The doctor poked it with a needle and drained it. Emily didnt even flinch. The doctor confimed that it was a staff infection. I guess staff is quite common here in the south. She is on a heavy dose of antibiotics and a topical antibiotic too. Pretty scary stuff! She seems to be alright now except for having to take the nasty medicine with a whole glass of water twice a day.

Yes we are still here!

Sorry I havent updated the blog in a while. This week is Spring Break for Emily so we have been at Mom's house visiting. Kinda sad since that will probably be the last time we will be at that house before she moves. The kids love being around their Gram Gram and their Uncle. We didnt do much but hang out. We did manage to all pile into Uncle Ryan's truck and go get Ice cream at McD's. I guess sometimes it is just good to hang out and do nothing. Take time to smell the flowers as the old saying goes.

His Obsession

Let me let you in on a little secret...Casey LOVES the garbage man! We can be out driving around and that boy will spot a garbage truck from miles away. Sometimes I think he has a sensor in him that sounds an alarm everytime there is a garbage truck in his vicinity. He loves watching the truck pull up, take our can and put it upside down into the truck. He even has a little collection of garbage trucks. His latest addition actually talks and says "to the dump to the dump to the dump dump dump" and "phew that stinks" and "I love trash". I know we want the best for our kids so I am hoping that he decides to NOT have a career in waste management LOL!

It is coming together

So I have been working on Emily's new bedroom this weekend and week. By doing a little bit at a time I wont be overwhelmed when the bed gets here. She seems to like it so far. Next will be transforming Casey's room. That shouldnt be too hard since he will just need a bedspread and bed. He already has a sports theme rug and shelving thanks to his Uncle Ryan. This house is beginning to look a little better LOL

A few of my latest creations

So I got to scrapbook this weekend and thought I would share some of my work. I get my ideas from magazines and sketches. I wish I had the copies so I could give credit but I pass them on to my tablemate and she then does her own spin on them. Hope you enjoy!

Extreme Makeover Room Edition

Emily had her first experience with power tools this weekend. She is getting ready to have a bigger bed in her room. We have gotten the new bedspread and now we are changing the things on her walls to the colors of the bedspread. One thing that needed to be changed was the book case that holds her chapter books. We started with a piece of sandpaper trying to take the yellow and pink paint off so we could paint it purple. Well after struggling, Dad decided that she could use his sander. She was so cute sanding away. She was afraid to use it at first but got the hang of it after awhile. Now to spray paint her metal flowers, I think I will do that or my back porch may end up painted Aqua LOL! We will post pics of the new room once it is finished.

Bowl a Rama Saturday

So Casey has been bugging all of us to go bowling. He went with our good friend Timmy and his daughter Kristen the last time they watched him and Emily. He had such a good time that he wanted to go back and do it again. I told him that Daddy would take him so that is what we did yesterday. What an experience! We got a lane with "bumpers" on it so Casey wouldnt throw gutter balls all day. He was more interested in the hand dryer on the end of the ball return than bowling. He would stand over it and blow his hair. When it was his turn to bowl he would run with the ball and drop it. Of course it would take about 5 minutes for it to reach the pins. He did get the ball stuck on the lane and we had to tell the front desk. Emily and I were mortified when they spoke on the loud speaker, "Ball stuck on lane 38!". Then everyone looked at us (NICE!). It was good to spend some family time together and have fun doing it. Our final scores were Casey(62)Emily(89)Mom(94)Dad(117). And I did learn one thing too, never give Casey sugar before we go bowling!

A Girl and Her Cat

Emily has had Jo-Jo since she was three no maybe four. He used to just tolerate her. He would rather be left alone but once Casey arrived on the scene, things changed. Jo-Jo will let Emily hold him. He comes to her in the morning and rubs up against her so she will feed him. He is not a real loving cat like our other cats were but he is beginning to warm up after 4 years. I think it bugs Chris because the cat likes me now more than him. LOL!

Emily is starting to become more of a mother to him now that she is older. She will feed him and groom him. The one thing she doesnt do is clean the litter box but neither does her Dad. All her friends have dogs so she is quite different from them with her little tiger cat named Jo.

Child's Play

Sometimes I forget to let me kids just be kids and not grown up. Case in point, this morning when I pulled into the driveway after taking Emily to school Casey saw the puddles that had appeared overnight. He doesnt wear shoes when he brings his sister to school since we are in the car so I said, "Have at it!" He proceeded to jump and play in the puddles. He was so happy and his laughter warmed my heart. When he was done it was off to the bathtub to wash all that grossness off. I guess I cant let go completely LOL!

I guess those Pampered Chef brownies werent so bad after all

Well I started to make a Pampered Chef recipe last night for Emily's class, Brownie cups. I thought after I made them that they were a little to tart for the kids to eat. They tasted alot like dark chocolate and not milk chocolate. Emily even informed me that the kids wouldnt like them. So I went to Wally World and got cupcakes and Capri Suns for the class instead. You would think that being a SAHM I could bake them something but I guess I got lazy LOL!

Well come to find out my kids love those Brownie Cups. I guess they just didnt want me to give them away (more for them to eat)!!!

It's The Little Things That Matter

I keep telling myself that it is the little things that matter, tiny surprises throughout the day. Like the sound of birds chirping, a hug from one of my kids, a phone call from Chris just because he wanted to say hi.

Well this morning I was touched by a little thing that seemed to make a big difference in my day. Every morning I pack the kids in the car and take Emily to school. We always have a couple of minutes to wait in carpool. I notice other kids kissing their parents good-bye. Well it has been a while since Emily kissed me goodbye. I think it is the growing up thing. They dont want their friends to see them doing that. She thinks she is about 16 already (that's another post all together). Well this morning she leaned into the front seat and kissed my cheek. What a sweet little moment. Thanks to her I have started my day off on the right foot.