Some people knew me when I looked like this....

This hair was epic. It was the stuff dreams were made of in the 80's and 90's, and I my friends knew how to rock the big hair. Notice, it doesn't even all fit in the picture? WOW.

I'm fortunate enough to still keep in contact with some of my high school friends, and this weekend I came home to see my family, friends and attend an Alumni event at the CAI basketball game. Now I graduated from Graceland, which is no longer around since they merged with CAI, but a lot of the old G-land peeps could be found this weekend at CAI. I went with my sister, and her best friend from high school also came. It was a merging of the class of 87, and class of 93. Thanks goodness, the hair has changed since those days.....

Left to Right....Sharolyn, me, Lyndsay, Jo and Amy.
Another great weekend!! Thanks mom and dad for keeping the kiddos for me so I could go out.

The latest in these parts.....

**Well, I guess I spoke too soon about the van. On Tuesday, Hope and I were running errands and at the post office, the van quit working again!!! The same exact thing it did on Sunday. For the love of pete. Had it towed again, and found out that the alternator is bad and needs to be replaced. Oh the joys of an older vehicle, but I'm still grateful for that van.

**I haven't mentioned that Hope starts school next week!!! Funny, how different things are with her than Pierce. I never sent Pierce to pre-school at all, I just did it all myself, but Hope is a social creature and wants to go. I'm excited and she's excited. She asks me almost everyday, "can I start school today?" It's just a couple days a week, just enough for both of us ;) Also, I want to document that she has starting speaking sometimes in a southern accent. Only a few months and the South is taking her in. It's pretty cute!

**We have reached snow day 11.5!!! I've never seen anything like it, but as you can see the kids don't mind....

Oh and just wanted to add these pics of my sleeping babes. It tugs at my heart that they still sleep with a "lovie" This would be Pierce's "buddy" (part 2) the original is hidden away, ha!
And well Hope sleeps with just about anything and everything. She always has her "blankie" but usually other things accompany her. Whatever her mood is. Last night it was her cell phone. She's a lot like me I guess, tee hee.
So, that's the latest here. Supposed to head back to Indiana again this weekend, pray that the ol' vehicle gets us there and back in one piece!!

A really unexpected weekend.

The last time I blogged, I said I wasn't sure what our weekend would hold. Originally there was plans to come home and go to a game and out with some friends, and see family etc.... The snow that we all got cancelled the Friday night game and I just decided to postpone my trip another weekend. The sad thing was that my sister was having a birthday party for Nathan (her youngest) and I was going to miss that, but I really didn't think we could swing me going two weekends back to back. Fast forward to Saturday, Paul and I were talking and he told me "just go on and go" WHA?? See, I don't 'fly by the seat of my pants' very well. I get all jittery and hivey, and act like a crazy lady. But by golly, I decided, 'what the hay' let's do it!!!! Paul had plans to go to Nashville Saturday night, so I would be flying solo with the kiddies. After some serious pit sweating and hauling booty we made to Indiana about 3:30. Sweet. Also my nephew, Cody would be playing a game Saturday night and this gave me a chance to go root my nephew on!!

First stop we made was Cracker Barrel. Yummy!!!

Then it was on to root on the Borden Braves take down the Henryville. Kids were mostly happy, as long we provided the salt/sugar combo all night.
Pierce even managed to cheer on for a while.
Now I didn't get any shots of the game. For one, my camera doesn't work too well from any distance, and second I was too busy having mini strokes. You see this game was a NAIL BITER. Oh.my.word. Borden won by 1 point, and this was a last minute, "Hoosiers" movie kinda moment. We were all jumping up and down, screaming, hugging strangers, actin' straight a fool, I'm serious, I believe I aged a few years. Sooooo exciting. Oh, and that #34 coming in there, is my nephew Cody, who by the way scored 18 points!!! HOLLA!!!
Jo asked if we would like to spend the night with her this time. Kids LOVED that. Woke up Sunday morning and played x-box most of the morning with Nathan!! What fun!!
Insert a b-day party for sweet Nathan, who is now 12 years old.
I remember the day Jo gave birth, I was working at Cracker Barrel, and brought her a piece of chocolate cake. Funny the stuff you remember!! Nathan's always been a sweet, laid back loving kid. Now he's almost a teen!!! *tear*
So, par-tay was over, and I have loaded up the van and we're ready to head back to Bowling Green. I go to turn over the key and 'click, click, click' It was dead as a dead can be. My dad comes out to look at it and says "I'm sure it's the battery" Okay, not bad, right? He jumps it, I go to follow him to Sears, and my van would go no more than 5 mph, and was smelling hot, and it died again. My dad wasn't sure what the deal was, so we had it towed. So, I was not getting home. Pierce would miss school, and I was stuck wondering what in the world is wrong with my vehicle, and how much is this gonna cost!!!

Fast forward to Monday, van was seen and turns out it was just the battery!! Shew!!! Thank goodness, I was at my parents when this happened and not on the expressway in between Indiana and Bowling Green. Thanks goodness it was just the battery and thank goodness for my dad helping his daughter out!!! (again) ;)

A bonus to unexpectedly staying another day?? Getting a chance to see your BFF. Thanks Tracey for meeting me and the kids at Chick Fil A today ;) Here's to next weekend going a little more smoothly!!!

A family that wears camo together, stays together...

....OR just looks ridiculous.

WHAT has this man done to me people?? I'm wearing a camo hat. Please don't call the fashion police, I would get a life sentence.

Okay, it's not Rico's fault. It was all in the name of family unity, and to protect our heads from bats!!!!
We decided to take the kids to Mammoth Cave last Saturday (thanks to Jill Ausmus for the tip, that tours were FREE!!!!) The kids were determined bats might fly down and get us, so we all wore hats ;)

You know I never had been to Mammoth Cave!!! How shall I say this without sounding like an idiot......it's really mammoth!!! I was quite fascinated, and so were the kids!! Paul was a little bored with the cave itself, but he loved that we were all enamored.

I didn't get too many shots inside the cave, because my camera doesn't work well when it's that dark. Oh and let me tell you, the "free" cave thing must have gotten around. We arrived at 10:30 for the first tour, and didn't get to go until 1:30. It was worth the wait though. Taking a little break, and secretly hoping that a bat would come swoop down by her. That's all she talked about, were bats!!!

And Pierce was determined he kept seeing "animal tracks" He saw, bears, raccoons, and monkey tracks ;) The kids had the best time!! Pierce kept saying "this was the best family day ever" For that, I would wear camo every day!!!
And miss thang, spent a lot of time like this, and complained because "she was soooo tired, from walking" ha!! I asked Rico if I could get on his shoulders for a while, he didn't oblige.
It was a great family day!!!

Sadly, I was supposed to be going home this weekend for my nephews birthday, but the snow messed all that up. Paul's got plans most of the weekend, so it'll just be and the kids fending for ourselves. Looking forward to see what we can get into :-)

Put on your big girl pants....

I just want/need to share about my night.

We moved to Bowling Green October 1st, so we've been here for 3 months. I've done pretty well with "getting out there" so to speak. I enrolled in Jazzercise right away, I've been to lunch with some women Paul works with. We started visiting a church right away, Living Hope, and we are pretty sure that it's our fit and where God is leading us. I've made "friends" with some of my fellow Jazz people, you know coffee here and there, but nothing too big. I guess what I'm trying to say, is I haven't felt to much out of my comfort zone in these 3 months.

Until tonight. I went to a MOPS group at the church tonight. I knew one person in a room of 30. It kind of felt like Junior High all over again. Not because anyone was mean or anything, but just that weird feeling of "I'm not one of them" and "I don't know their stories and they don't know mine" You know what I'm saying?? When you've grown up in one place your whole life, you just know everything. It's just comfortable. Even when I went to SouthEast for a while, I knew some people. As I was sitting there, I thought I was gonna cry!!! Not for any particular reason, except it was the first time that it really dawned on me "I'm not home"

Just like God though, He sat me next to some really nice women. Women who made me relax and feel "okay" They invited me to Bible study Wednesday morning, and bagels Thursday. Also, the speaker was WONDERFUL, and I just know that I was to be there. Uncomfortable or not, sometimes you have to put on your big girl pants and just go.....

Feeling stretched tonight, and just needed to share.

More snow days!!!

Well, we made it to snow day #8!! We finally did end up with some snow, so that made for some fun play. I felt kinda guilty about complaining about snow days. I do love having them both home, it's just hard when it's cold and your cooped up. I was happy when I could actually get them out for some snow fun, and I even thought of another idea to entertain them....

I wonder who the first person was to think of doing this?? "Hey, I'll lay down and make an angel" HA!

Timeless fun ;-)
So, here was my grand idea....pull out the mattress and let the kids roll down in for hours of fun. HA! It worked like a charm I tell ya! They did this for hours.
Weeeee!!!

Lastly, let me tell you the wonders of skype. Yeah, i know it's been around a long time, but we've just started using it. How cool is it to sit in your living room, and see your family that lives in Michigan and Florida (and maybe one day my Indiana peeps) Chatting with Meemaw and Grandpa....how cool is technology!!!!

Snow Days (and counting summer days goodbye)

So, let me tell you about us here in Keeeen-tucky. Tomorrow we will be having snow day #7!!!!! I love a good snow day, but I do think there's one thing that should accompany a snow day, and that would be SNOW. Round these parts tho, snow just has to be predicted and they cancel school. School was cancelled Friday and Monday, and not a lick of snow. Now we actually have some snow, so it will probably be cancelled the rest of the week. We haven't had enough snow to go out and play in it, so mommy has been trying hard to think of things to do to keep us from going a little bonkers.

Of course lots of games. No joke, this one beats me at memory.
Oh and this one talks the trash with me....
And I even get beat by him too!!!
Lots of UNO!!!
I've even let bike riding go on in the house. Trust me, you start losing your senses after so many days cooped up ;)
Oh, and animal bingo!!!
All smiles and laughter, little do they know these days home are ticking away summer time....
And you know you reaching when you throw your kids in the tub for entertainment.
Pray for me friends that I don't start slipping vodka in my diet coke these next few days. ( I kid, I kid) ;-)

We run a tight ship round here.

The Marines. The Navy Seals. The Army Rangers. The Green Berets. Those are nothing compared to rigors and demands round here.... ;-)

Daddy had the idea to start charts around here with chores. You know a little "earn rewards" system. This was all his doing and such, so I let him be the one to lay down the law on the kiddies.....

Look how enthused they are......"Wha?? We have to do what??"

Pierce is beginning to sink. Daddy is laying down the law."Look, we expect you up at 4:00 a.m. everyday, everything spot and shined"
"And you, well no more toys until you've done all the laundry and rubbed your mom's feet"
"Do you kids understand, NO MORE MAMBY PAMBY STUFF"
Tee hee....of course I kid. Just starting a little sticker chart system. Kids LOVE it right now, give us a few weeks and we'll see how it's going.

Being a mom.

Being a mom is hard. It just is. Working mom, stay at home mom, new mom, old mom, whatever mom, it's just hard. There are those days when I literally feel as though I am spinning my wheels, you know just never really getting anywhere. Sometimes I huff and puff, and lose perspective and get caught up in my own feelings, wondering just how tired a mom can get. These aren't my pretty mom moments, I hate that I get this way, but I do.

It never fails though, God shows me these little things that always put my job back in perspective.

A tired mom ready for bed, going through my head all that I need to do. When I see this collection of shoes at the end of my bed. Immediately tears welled up in my eyes!!! All at once I remember my children are only little once, one day I will crave picking up these sweet little shoes, and miss my babies playing all day long and making messes.

So instead of picking all this up, I put it neatly at the end of my bed and took pictures. Just to remind myself to not get caught up, and just enjoy being a mom. I know I'm gonna miss these days.....

An ode to my father.

On Memaw and Grandpa's last day for a visit, I cooked (gasp) dinner. Pierce also brought home the class mascot again (Harvey the Hippo) and we needed pics of him with the hippo for his journal. What better picture than the classic "dinner" time portrait. Couldn't help but feel like my dad ;-)

Lots of tears from a little boy about his grandparents leaving. We had a wonderful visit and miss them already.

The end of 2010...

Here's a little look of what we've been up to on Christmas vacation, and the last of 2010....

We've been enjoying Christmas gifts...one of which was a trip to Chuck E. Cheese!!!

Hot stuff up there ;)
Showing off his skills!!
There's been lots of painting on the new easel (this was for our upcoming house guests)

Oh and let me tell you about this umbrella!! It gets used all.the.time!!! As you can see, even in daylight. She's like a good southern girl, trying not to get too much sun.Yes, and in the rain too. She LOVES her umbrella!!!
But the really big thing around here was the arrival of two important people!!! MEMAW and GRANDPA!!!! These two were on the edge of their seats waiting for them, and watching for them.

SOOO EXCITED when they finally made it!!!!
They came with gifts and they dove right in!!!And Pierce didn't even wait a minute before he was ready to show his grandpa his prize possession!!!
Grandpa checking it out :-)
Showing off!!

Of course what are grandparents good for?? Helping the kids play games and get the most tickets possible!!!
Check out all those!!!It was nice having them here for New Years Eve. We had a low key night, just watching movies and eating. Memaw came with fun snacks, what makes everything taste better?? Chocolate of course.
As you can see....Fondue...
was a big.....

hit for all... ;-)

And lastly, let me tell you who got a big girl bed!!!! That would be ME!!!! Well, Paul too. We had been looking for a new bed and decided on one, I just wasn't really sure when we would get it. The other day Paul left to take out the trash, and came back with the bed. He does stuff like that, always surprising me. I also got new bedding for Christmas, I'm very happy with it all!!! The bed we had Paul paid 20 dollars for, HA!! So, this feels all so grown up ;-)Back to school tomorrow and Memaw and Grandpa leave on Tuesday. Boo.