I hate doing dishes, taking out the trash and washing dogs...

I mean it, I loathe washing dishes...I would rather be non-PC and use plastic and paper for everything or better yet, eat out every meal in order to avoid washing a dish. The other thing I hate is washing the dog and he doesn't like it too much either, probably because when the kids have done it they end up chasing him all over the bathroom and just terrorize him trying to get him back in the tub...not a pleasant experience for any of us. Then there is the trash issue, since we are in a more rural setting we decided to save some money and start taking our trash to the local dump ourselves instead of paying for someone to come pick it up. Well that was fine and dandy when it was not going in my car and I was not the one having to do.

I say all this because I am now having to do all of the above because I am 2 mths into an undetermined stint as a single parent. Chris started his new job in Atlanta a little over 2 mths ago so I am having to adapt to my "new" jobs that Chris normally did as well as do the stuff I always did, laundry and cooking, etc...

I will confess the first week was not too bad, I actually got some sleep because Chris was not there snoring in my ear every night and the kids were on their best behavior ever because not having dad around 24/7 like he had been for 9+ mths due to his layoff was a new experience for them. But after that first week the winds of change began to blow through our house...the DIVA was waking up everynight when I went to bed wanting to sleep with me...a wiggly 7 yr old is not condusive to a good nights sleep, Camden started bringing home C's on some of his schoolwork which is unheard of for him, the kids were arguing more and more, dishes were piling up b/c not only do I hate washing them I hate having to load and unload a dishwasher too...I cooked so someone else needs to clean only there was no one else to clean, around this time I noticed the dog, Tebow, acting funny...I think he is depressed that Chris is not around and feel he needs some doggie Prozac...he lays around a lot more than usual and will only play for a minute before he collapses to floor with a big "SIGH" and he is not trying to sleep on my bed at night either, ever since Chris left Tebow has slept in the DIVA's room or he has stayed in his bed all night...literally unheard of when Chris is home. The kids also started getting their fair share of the illnesses floating around school and then they so kindly shared them with me and that has been a vicious, unending circle and just when I thought the circle had been broken who gets ill, THE DOG!!!! Add in there that I am also dealing with a house that is for sale that is not selling and that is adding even more stress to my life.

I know many single parents and I have always admired them and all that they do and wondered to myself "How do they get it all done?" especially one friend of mine who is a single parent of 3, works full time and volunteers for just about everything, has a side business and helps her mom with her business ventures, and now that I am getting a small taste of the single parent life I have decided that it is definately not for someone like me who was already stressed because once the stress gets to be too much I become apathetic. That in turn causes the dishes and unfolded laundry to pile up, the dog to start looking like an Ewok and smelling like a bag of Doritos (I swear, he gets a Eau de Dorito smell after he has gone 2wks w/o a bath) and the trash...well, I can't let the trash sit around because it will stink.

Will be happy when we are all together again and I have my dishwasher and dogwasher back!!

Ummmmm

did not realize how long it has been since I posted an update!! Things have been CRAZY around here to say the least...

I promise to update this weekend!!!

BIG CHANGES AHEAD!!!

It has been forever and a day since I posted anything!! The kids had their 5 week break for the summer and they are already half way through the first 9 weeks of school, time flies!! They love their teachers this year and reconnecting with friends from last year and making new ones with all the new students at Thales this year.

We took a long weekend trip to Columbia,SC a few weeks ago and while Chris was working the baseball games at USC the kids and I headed over to the Riverbanks Zoo the first day and then the 2nd day we were there we headed to Spartanburg to see my friend Kellee, her hubby Patrick and their kids, Eli, Ethan, Emilee, Elliott, and the new twins Eden and Evan. We had a great weekend away and it was great to spend the afternoon with great friends!

Now on to the news...it has never been officially announced on here but lots of people already knew that Chris was laid off from his job last Oct after being with the engineering company for 13 years. After 10 + months of looking and interviewing everywhere from Houston to Norfolk to DC and right here in Raleigh he has been offered a job!!! He will be working for a structural engineering firm in Atlanta and we could not be more excited!! That means we are now purging our house and packing things and preparing to put it on the market as soon as possible and trying to do as much stuff around here as we can while Chris is still here.

My friend Jenna and her hubby Brent are in the Atlanta area and I am so excited to moving close to them!! Jenna has even hooked me up with a fabulous realtor already!! Chris has to be there to start work on Sept 8th and we will be hunting for a corporate rental for him this weekend. I pray that our house sells quickly and for the amount that we need it to sell for. The kids are excited that daddy has a new job and Camden is excited about being able to go to Braves games, the DIVA is not too excited about this impending move but I know she will handle it like a pro! I really like Atlanta and I look forward to turing a lot of my new friends into Gator fans, lol!!!

I have zoo pics to post and pics from the Cogdill's visit so be on the lookout!

Summer, Summer, Summertime...SUMMERTIME!

Did not realize it has been just over a month since my last blog! Since last checking in we had Thales Academy Field Day, one final First Grade Field Trip, A/R parties, End of School parties that included bowling and Dan the Animal Man, Grace has been to see HSM2 on stage with her friend Caroline and Camden spent a week at Camp Willowrun at Lake Gaston. I have pictures galore to share from most, if not all of these activities too!!

Let's start with Field Day...it was held at Beaver Dam on Falls Lake here in Raleigh and it was a day chock full of activities. The morning was spent with the whole school divided up into groups and learning from the Park Rangers about animals that can be found in the park and lake areas, learning Woodsman Safety and having a scavenger hunt. After lunch each grade level participated in Field Day Games that included an obstacle course, sponge toss, pizza box race and more... The kids had a blast, although it was extremely HOT the day went beautifully and ended with a Tug o War of Teachers vs. Parents and the teachers won.

Grace's class took one more field trip to Lake Crabtree the week before school got out. While there the kids enjoyed a picnic lunch, playing on the playground and then learning about the animals of Lake Crabtree from one of the Park Rangers. She showed the kids a cornsnake and had several other animals on display that had been "stuffed". It turned out to be one of the HOTTEST days for the first part of June but thankfully we had a lot of shade to keep us covered.

Both Camden and Grace met their A/R goals for the last nine weeks and got to enjoy the A//R parties the teachers had planned out. One of them had a Luau theme party and one had a ice cream party. Camden also received class awards on this day and he brought home quite a few from the "Babe Ruth Award' b/c of his love for baseball to several for Music and Character Club. Grace got a "Lifesaver" award from her class and a reading award and got one of the 3 Spectacular Spanish Awards from Spanish class. Both of them did so good this year and we are so proud of their accomplishments and can't wait to see what this next year holds in store for them. Camden even finished the year with a Straight A average in all subjects!!

For the end of year parties Camden' class went bowling and Grace's class had fun with water games. Before all of that started though the whole school got to enjoy a presentation by Dan the Animal Man. He brought a few of his animals for the kids to enjoy, there was the porcupine, the lemur, the owl and the python. The kids had a blast!! He promised that next time he would bring his alligator for the kids to see.

The last day of school also included Grace spending the night with her friend Caroline and going to see the stage musical of HSM2 here in Raleigh. The girls had the BEST time!! They got to sit on the front row and during intermission Caroline's mom bought them a poster and they got the cast signatures on them after the show. During the finale the cast throws out beach balls into the crowd and both Grace and Caroline were able to get one. They had such a great time and a great end to first grade.

Camden spent last week at Camp Willowrun up at Lake Gaston. This was his second year going and I think he had an even better time this year. He knew a couple of the kids in his boxcar from VBS at Enterprise where last year he did not know anyone in his bunk. He was SOOOOOO ready for us to leave him when we went to drop him off. This year he signed up for swimming, fishing and low ropes. Grace will get to go next year, the same week as Camden. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

Now that both kids are home for a few days they have gotten the typical summer colds. Thankfully they seem to be on the mend and should be raring to go when school starts back on July 20th!!

SQUIRREL!!

As I mentioned in an earlier post we won tickets to see a preview of the new Disney movie 'UP' that opens tomorrow. Tuesday evening we headed out to see the movie at North Hills and thought we were doing good getting there at 6:15pm for the 7pm movie...were we wrong!! There was a line that went through the lobby of the theater out the door and down the through courtyard area to the street!!! We got in line and that is when I noticed the "fine print" on the tickets..."Seating is limited to first come first serve, no rainchecks will be given...yada, yada, yada" I looked at Chris and told him I would be surprised if we got in from the looks of that line. Finally at 6:30 they started letting people in and we slowly made our way into the building and through the lobby and turned in our tickets only to be given new tickets and told to go stand in line again. Just before 7pm they started letting us in the theater and thankfully we got in!!

Chris and the kids and I found some seats and waited for the movie to start. It was a really cute movie, funny and sad at times. The animation was really good but of course it is Pixar so there was no doubt that it would be good. The kids LOVED the film as did Chris and I. There was only one thing that I had a problem with and that is how did the kid get on the porch b/c he clearly was not there when the house takes flight!! I would definately go see it again and suggest that everyone take their kids to see it too. It was nice to get away for a couple of hours and enjoy some time together at the movies. Thanks to WTVD for having the contest!

Won't you take me to Funkytown...

It's Memorial Day weekend and that means it is dance recital weekend for the DIVA. After several yrs of being in the 2pm recital we got to be in the 10am recital this yr...not sure if I liked the earlier time better but it sure helped this yr since Camden had a 12:45pm baseball game.

This yr Grace was in hip hop, ballet and tap again and I must say she did a FABULOUS job!!! All of the girls (and 2 boys) did a great job as usual, we so enjoy dancing at Dance Dynamics and highly suggest that if you are looking for a place for your kids to dance that you enroll them at DD! A big highlight of our 10am recital was when a group of the little itty bitty girls got up to dance one of them decided she was not going to participate. Before the lights even came up she took off across the stage running, they got her back and set her on her spot. The music started and lights came on and off she went again across the stage 2 times w/ one of the teachers right behind her and flustered. It was so cute and everyone got a great big laugh out of it!

(all the pics are from picture day at Dance Dynamics)

Camden had 3 games over this 4 day weekend, the team came from behind on Friday and won and then when I got to today's game they were winning 10-6 before the game was called not 15 min after I got there. We have one more game Monday night and hopefully we will be able to pull out a win from that one too.

We won!!

We won a Family 4 Pack of tickets to a preview of the new Disney movie 'UP' for next Tuesday. I entered on channel 11's website and lo and behold we won :) The kids are excited to see the movie next week and I will post my thoughts on the movie afterwards so you know if it is worth taking your kids too, really, what Disney animated movie is not worth going to?? Hmm??

Movin movin movin...

I have been on the move for weeks now with school activities, getting ready for Relay for Life, Grace's dance, Camden's baseball, etc... Since last Sunday (Mother's Day) we have had 3 baseball games, dance practice, Thales Academy's 1st Talent Show and the North Raleigh/Wake Forest Relay for Life weekend and Chris had an interview with a company here in Raleigh that seemed to have gone pretty well.

Camden's ball team won 2 of the 3 games they played this week and then had team pictures at 7:45 AM on Saturday. In the first game this week Camden stole 2nd and 3rd and scored a run!!

Grace had her last dance practice for this season because this week is dress rehearsal for her recital this coming Saturday.

On Thursday night we were entertained for a couple of hours by the students from Thales Academy during their first ever talent show. All the kids that participated did a FABULOUS job and I can't wait to see how they top themselves next year! Grace and 4 of her friends from Hip Hop did their recital dance and wowed the crowd. She also dressed up as a monster for a skit that her friend Savie did for the show, too cute!! There were kids that played the piano, guitar, sang, told jokes, hula hooped, played the clarinet, the violin, and 4 little kindergarten boys who breakdanced! Everyone brought a picnic dinner and had a great time!

Friday night and Saturday morning was Relay for Life for N. Raleigh/ Wake Forest at Wakefield High School. What a great night we had. The Opening Ceremonies was very nice, after the Color Guard from the Fire Dept presented the flags and Angela Hampton from WTVD channel 11 said a few words all the Survivors on hand got up and stated their name and what kind of cancer they had/have and how long they have been a survivor. My mom was one of them, she is now an 8yr survivor of colon cancer! The Survivors lead the first lap around the track to claps and whistles, so special. It was also nice to see and old friend from high school who lost her mother in March to lung cancer after having been a Survivor of breast cancer for many years. Her dad carried her mom's portrait around the track, such a special moment to witness. During the luminary ceremony they turned out all the lights in the stadium so the only thing lit is the luminaries that line the track that are purchased In Honor of and In Memory of loved ones with cancer. Kathrine, Grace and I went to look for the ones I bought for my mom and dad. We found my mom's first and then Grace found some in memory of Kay Yow (NC State Women's basketball coach who passed in Jan after fighting breast cancer for decades) The theme of this year's 25th Anniversary Relay was HOPE and on the bleachers they had luminaries that spelled out HOPE that were lit during the ceremony. We kept looking for my dad's luminary and finally found it, during his treatment his "theme" was Choose Hope and he had buttons made up that were passed out to his church members, etc... How neat it was that his luminary was on the track under the HOPE luminaries!! I know he was there looking down on us Friday night. This Monday the 18th would have been his 60th birthday, what a great way to spend the weekend leading up to his birthday, helping raise money to find a cure for the cancers that have stricken both my parents and my grandmother and the loved ones of others! The kids enjoyed the games and activities and the rest of us walked the track throughout the evening and caught up with other friends that we had not seen in a long time. Saturday at 8am Grace and I were back out there in the rain so she could participate in the Kids Walk. It was wonderful to see so many kids out there walking for a cure for cancer. Wool E Bull from the Durham Bulls was out there along with Swoop from the Carolina Railhawks and the Sonic Hotdog dude was out there as well. (I have tons of pics from the weekend that I will post soon and some from the Talent Show)

Right as we were leaving the house Fri to go to Relay we noticed some water on the floor by the refrigerator and water dripping out of the ice dispenser on the door. Our freezer and fridge had stopped working, not what we need right now!! It had apparently just happened so it was still cold enough that with us gone and the door closed things would keep until the next morning when we could deal with it. We called Sears who said that they could not have anyone out til Monday between 8am and 5pm...really!!! Could we not narrow that time frame down a little more?? So I have spent the weekend throwing food away, it makes me sick at how much food is GONE!! We loaded up the meat and headed to my sister's Sat night and cooked up chicken and hamburgers and hotdogs and pork chops and had a feast so it would not go to waste. We barely put a dent in it but at least she has a deep freeze that we could put it in after cooking it. I shudder to think what our grocery bill will be this week after the fridge is fixed. I will say that I had been meaning to clean out the fridge and freezer for awhile this just is not the way I wanted to do it much less the week that I needed to do it!!

Pray that Chris hears back about this job tomorrow, the interview went well and it sounds like a great opportunity. Although I would LOVE to move back to Florida this job would keep us here in NC, right now we will take anything!! I have been looking as well to no avail, yet, hopefully that will change soon too!!

I am ready to sit and stop movin for awhile!!

The Many Uses of a Thong

I spent Saturday with my mom and Miss Maidie, an elderly lady from one of my dad's former churches. We went to breakfast at Brigg's in Wake Forest and then headed out for some shopping at North Hills and Cameron Village in Raleigh. Our first stop at North Hills was at JC Penney and then a few of specialty shops across the street at The Lassister.

Upon entering Penney's, at 10am, we were hit with a wall of heat! It was so hot in the store that within 5 min we had sweat pouring down our faces. We forged on to the kids dept and then to lingerie dept. While waiting for my mom and Miss Maidie to get what they were looking for I sat down in the chair at the checkout counter and began to fan myself while the VERY LARGE lady behind the register was ringing up customers. After she was finished she began to tell Maidie and I about how the air conditioner was broken (I figured it was either that or Penney's was going to start offering Bikram Yoga classes) and how she was trying to stay cool. She proceeded to lift up the back of her shirt to show us that she had a wad of paper towels stuck to catch sweat but the best was when she told us about her sweatband on her head. She said she came in that morning, bought this red lacy thong, cut out the crotch and stuck it on her head and pushed the lining underneath the lace and was using it as a sweatband...I kid you not!!!

I never would have thought of doing that much less admit it to complete strangers if I did!! So, I ask this, Do you have any strange uses for a thong??

Wordless Wednesday

Stampin Out Cancer

If you are in the Wake Forest area on Tuesday May 5th please come by Thales Academy and participate in Stampin Out Cancer. From 4pm - 5:30pm we will be making cards to send to cancer patients at Duke, UNC and Duke Children's Hospitals. We will have a card for the adults to make and a card for the kids to make and then sign. Cost will be $3 for a parent/child and each additional child will be $1 with all money, after supplies, going to Relay for Life North Raleigh/Wake Forest. We will have a door prize of a retired Stampin Up stamp set to give away as well so be sure to register for it when you arrive.

I will also have information available on Stampin Up and how you can become a hostess or sign up for a club and will even take orders that day if there is anything you just have to have :)

Thales Academy is located at 3106 Heritage Trade Drive Wake Forest, NC We hope to see you there!!

We are still signing people up to participate on our Relay for Life team as well. The walk is Friday May 15th and Saturday May 16th at Wakefield High School. Contact me if you are interested in joining our team!

Relay for Life

As you know my family has had several members afflicted with cancer. My grandmother had lung cancer, my mom had colon cancer, her borther had prostate cancer and my dad passed away from esophageal cancer. Every year we have participated in Relay for Life to pay tribute to my grandmother and my dad and to honor my mom. It is hard to find anyone these days who has not been affected in some way by this awful disease and that is why I Relay.

This year I am the Team Captain for the Thales Academy Relay Team for the North Raleigh/Wake Forest event on May 15th and 16th. We are currently recruiting team members to come out and help us walk the track and support cancer research. If you are interested in joining us you can sign up at www.tinyurl.com/teamthales If you have any questions feel free to send me a message.

We will be collecting spare change at school the week of May 4th to donate to Relay for Life on behalf of the school and on May 5th we will be making cards to send to cancer patients at Duke and UNC. I will post more info about that in the next few days.

Looking forward to Relaying with you!!

I am Twittering!

Well, I actually started Twittering a little over a year ago. I Tweeted one or 2 posts and then did nothing with it again until a few weeks ago. I still love my Facebook though and have no desire to give that up like some people I know have talked about doing. So come follow me on Twitter @karenpartin.

Have you ever lost a tooth from a Blizzard??

It is currently April 7th, baseball is in full swing, flowers are blooming and pollen is coating everything!!! The only problem is that our high today was only 53 degrees, yes, 53 degrees!!That is INSANE!!! What is even more insane is that after meeting my mom and sister and niece for dinner we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream!

Chris and I along with my sister are starting a new diet this weekend. This week has been spent weaning ourselves from caffeine, if you know me you know I have a DIEHARD Diet Coke habit, so this has been interesting. I brewed up the last of the coffee this morning and used up the last of the chocolate caramel coffee creamer and on the way to dinner polished off the last of my diet coke stash from home. Tomorrow is COLD TURKEY on the caffeine for me and this weekend we start our 14 day detox where we are not allowed caffeine, sugar, sweetners, dairy, oils, etc... I figure I will be curled up in the fetal position by Sat. After our 14 day detox we can start adding some things back into our diet, we will see how long I can hold off the diet cokes.

I say all of that to get back to our DQ trip. Right before we left for dinner there was a commercial on TV for the new Midnight Truffle Blizzard at DQ. I told Chris I needed one last treat before this diet starts and Kathrine agreed she needed one too. While we were eating our ice cream the DIVA jumps up from the table screaming and runs to the bathroom yelling that she is bleeding. Thanks to the fact that it is so cold outside there was only 1 couple in the place besides us. I go check on the DIVA and her mouth is covered with blood, no paper towels anywhere in the bathroom, got some napkins out front and in no time she pulled her tooth out on one yank! After that there was no going back to the ice cream for her, she walked around DQ with napkins hanging out of her mouth looking like a rabid animal. The other couple got a chuckle and now the Tooth Fairy has to make a stop. So I ask, have you ever lost a tooth from eating ice cream?? The DIVA has!!

Did anyone watch today's Oprah?

I am not a devout Oprah follower but will watch on occasion. Today was a hour long show about how mom's today feel overwhelmed and alone as well as some funny confessions. I must say this was an hour that I definately needed!!

There is a new book out called "I Would Trade My Husband for a Housekeeper" that they were talking about and they were also discussing the new show "In The Motherhood" which is written from real life mom stories. I watched ITM when it was a online show and loved it and now am watching the TV series and find it quite funny as well.

It was trying to teach mom's not to be so hard on themselves and how we as mom's tend to judge other mom's to harshly. Also, how we see these "perfect mom's" on TV and try too hard to make ourselves like them only we disconnect from the fact that that is on TV and not real. I will say that I don't try by any means to be a perfect TV mom but I do get frustrated and overwhelmed often.

Some of the "Mom Confessions" included a mom who admitted to making her kids an entire lunch out of the snacks she found in the car, another admitted to driving with her sleeping kids and not wanting to wake them to stop so she could use the bathroom so she used a diaper for herself (that is not one I have personally done but there was a time when I probably would have). I will admit that I have made my son pee in an empty diet coke bottle in the car so I did not have to stop on my way to wherever I was going at the time. Some other confessions I will make is that I got tired of making my daughter a different dinner than what we were having and in trying to get her to eat what we were eating she pitched a fit and cried at the table until she fell asleep at the table with her blanket, long after we had finished ours. I am also guilty of not jumping up everytime they cry b/c as their mother I can tell a difference between a cry of being "really hurt" and a cry of "I bumped my head". Both my husband and I are guilty of sleeping in on the weekends and letting the kids watch TV in the living room or play video games in their rooms until we get up.

Let me know if you saw the show today as well and what your thoughts were on it. Us mom's need to stick together and not try to bring each other down.

Ok, so there are some of my confessions. Please leave your own and maybe I will post some more in another blog soon! One more confession before I sign off...there are times when I would do ANYTHING for a housekeeper, sometimes even trading my hubby for one, but only for a couple of hours each week!

I must have lost my mind!!

The Diva's birthday cake that Aunt Kiki made, the Diva designed it herself!

The Diva's birthday ALWAYS falls at the beginning of track out or right at Easter or both! This year it fell during track out, since we had just been to Florida we thought that we could get away with that being her "Birthday" but no such luck of course, being the Diva that she is. We looked into several options for parties and then she decided that she wanted a sleepover party with her friends. Yes, I said SLEEPOVER!! We agreed and started making plans to be invaded by 7 yr old girls.

Camden hightailed it out of the house for the night and went to stay with Kiki and Jared who also had Levi (Jared's nephew) come down. Chris tried to hightail it out of the house but that was not happening!!

Grace brought me a list of at least 20 girls she wanted to come which I promptly whittled down to 5 plus her. We sent out invites and had the girls meet us at Milton's for pizza before heading home to party. This was Grace's first sleepover and all the girls had never stayed anywhere except at grandparents or aunts/uncles so we were in for an adventure. One little girl came to dinner with us but just was not ready to stay away from home so we ended up with 4 coming home with us and I know Milton's was glad to see me leave with all these loud, squealing little girls, LOL!!

We came home and had cake, opened presents, got on jammies and then I held on tight to see what the night would bring. There was bed jumping and bumped heads, snacks, snacks and snacks (who would of thought that little girls would eat like teenage boys!!), crafts,movies, Barbie's, Wii and Zubber...all that was in the first hour and half, seriously!!

They all were very good, no fights and one was asleep by 10:30 and another by 11:30. Leave it to mine to be up with the other 2 until 2am...yes, 3 7yr olds STILL up at 2AM!!!!!! Then everyone was up and awake at 7am...are they insane???

All in all it was a good night, the girls had fun and Chris and I survived...but it may be awhile before we do this again!

Wordless Wednesday

Wintering in Florida

That is what we will be doing from now on! We were able to go to Florida Feb 25th thru March 2nd. The weather was beautiful and we had a good time seeing family and friends in Lake Wales and staying out at Crooked Lake.

While we were in Lake Wales I was able to catch up with some old friends that I have not seen in 20 yrs!! I have known Angel Goodman Bowen since we attended First Methodist Preschool and then we both went to Babson Park Elem which is where I first met Jennifer Jacobs Mueller. We all attended middle school together in LW but went to different high schools before I moved to NC. We have all recently gotten back in touch through Facebook so when I found out I was coming to LW I told Angel to get Jennifer and that we needed to get together. We had a great time reminising about old times and people and stuff we did as kids, it was just like 20 yrs had never passed. They brought their kids out to the lake and they all had a blast playing on the beach and playing ping pong and getting to know each other. Grace loved hanging out with Angel's daughter, Blair and was begging for a sleepover. It was great to see them hang out and have fun just like their mom's did with each other all those years ago! I so wish that I lived close enough to see them more!

We also went to see my grandfather while we were in town. He looks good and seems to be well, except for the cold he was getting while we were there. We went to church with him on Sunday and it was good to see some old friends at First Baptist. It was so good to see him and I hope that we can get down again to see him this summer or early fall. We were also able to see my aunt and uncle, who graciously let us use their lake house and one of my cousins while we were in town.

We spent one day in Orlando because Chris had a convention to go to. Before we dropped him off we went to Downtown Disney and took the kids to lunch at Planet Hollywood and then took Camden to the Lego Store. It was VERY HARD to get Chris and Camden to leave the Lego Store!! We are getting in Raleigh this summer so I now know where Chris and Camden will be every free moment we have :) On our way back from Orlando we met up with my friend Jaime and her husband Bill and kids for dinner. It was good to see them and catch up.

Since we had such beautiful weather during our trip we took Saturday and headed to the beach!! We toook the kids to Sanibel Island where they were able to swim and collect shells. The kids and I got a little sun, Chris got A LOT of sun and he survived the drive to the island! If you know Chris you know he really does not like bridges and if you know Sanibel in order to get there you have to go across 3 miles of bridges! I did not tell Chris that until we had already gotten in the car and well into our trip that day, he handled it very well!! There was a lot of traffic that day but thankfully the beach was not too busy. On our way back to LW we ate dinner at Sonny's BBQ (a must whenever I am in the area) and we got Plant City strawberries to bring back to NC, yum!! We also had to make a stop at Spook Hill for Grace, she loved going the last time we were there and BEGGED all week until we finally went. I don't know if I ever got that excited about it when I lived but it is fun to see her so giddy!

Since NC had snow and schools had a snow day when we left FL on Monday we decided to stop in Savannah and continue home on Tuesday. We made our way to dowtown and went by The Lady and Sons and Paula Deen's store adn we got some pics of a couple of the town squares. It was chilly when we arrived, not too bad though. We got a room down on Bay St. and could see the river from our room. At dinner we walked over to Lady and Sons and took a chance that we could get in that night and as luck would have it we GOT IN!! We did have to spend some time walking around sight seeing prior to dinner but it was SO worth it, thankfully we had missed lunch while on the road b/c everyone was sleeping. The kids got the buffet and I got Paula's famous chicken pot pie and Chris got shrimp and grits. We could not finish our meals, SO GOOD but TOO MUCH of it!! (the cheddar biscuits are to die for!!) It was freezing on Tues when we got up to leave but we did manage to take a quick stroll along the river before heading home. I am already scheduling a Girls Weekend to Savannah for later this year!

The majority of the snow was gone when we hit Raleigh late last Tues afternoon and then Wed was back into the swing of school and dance and now baseball is starting back. We had a great time on our trip and hope to get back very soon, I pray that we can move back down there sometime in the near future.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday a day early

Since I will be on the road tomorrow here is tomorrow's picture today.

A Trip Through a Wax Museum

Today Chris and I had the opportunity to tour a "Living Wax Museum" For the past several weeks Camden and his class have been researching historical figures. They were able to choose the person they wanted to research and then wrote a speech and a poem about the person. They also drew a portrait of the person, made a timeline of important dates in the life of their chosen figure. All of this information was put on a tri-fold board to display in the classroom. The researching culminated today when all the kids dressed up as their figure and the parents got to tour the wax museum and learn about the historical figures. The kids even made their own buttons with "play", "pause" and "stop" for parents to push to start speeches the kids had written. Some of the figures the kids chose were Lou Gehrig (Camden's chosen figure), Abe Lincoln, 2 Jane Goodall's, Elvis, Duke Ellington, Christopher Columbus, Anne Frank, Annie Oakley, Sally Ride, Teddy Roosevelt, Julie Krone, Kerri Strug, Amelia Earhart,Florence Nightengale, MLK Jr., and Sacagawea.

The kids did a GREAT job with their presentations and boards and they had a lot of fun doing the research and dressing up. This is just one more praise I have of Camden and Grace's new school. I don't think any of the teachers at their old public school would have done anything like this. I feel that they are allowed to be more creative here at Thales and they have taken to the direct instruction so easily. I look forward to what the rest of the year has in store not only for Camden and Grace but for the rest of the students!

Pics, pics and more pics

I have more pics that are on my laptop but it is currently under repair. Once I get it back, hopefully this week I can post some more.

Much to Kathrine's dismay I have taught Addy early that there is nothing like a diet coke!!

I'm Back!

It has been forever since I posted anything and I really don't have a lot to say today. We are busy with school and dance and baseball is getting ready to start back in a couple of weeks. The kids are doing great at Thales, Camden made straight A's on his last report card and on this 9 weeks interims that just came home they both had straight A's! I am so proud of them!!

We are going to Florida next week and I can't wait! We are leaving on Wed which also happens to be the 2 yr mark since my dad passed. It is good we will be gone next week, not sure I want to be around here for that. Chris has a convention he is going to in Orlando and I am going to try and catch up with old friends and family. It seems like everyone will be down there except for my mom and Kathrine, Jared and Addy. Next Wed is also Kathrine's birthday so I know that will be hard for her.

I pray for warm weather too while we are there. We got a taste of it here last week with 70 degrees days but it is back in the 30's and 40's this week, ugh!!!

Chris is still looking at job opportunities down there and I pray that something comes up interview wise while we are there.

We have started The Biggest Loser Bootcamp DVD and I handled the first day wonderfully, day 2 kicked my butt!! I hate Bob Harper but I know I would dislike Jillian even more!

I do need to post some pics, I have some of Addy that I took the other day when I got to babysit and I took her to the kids Valentine parties at school. I will get those up later today.

Thank goodness...

The holidays are finally behind us, whew!! Bet you thought we had fallen off the earth since I had not posted in awhile.

We had a good Christmas here at home this year with my mom and Kathrine, Jared and Addy. Camden got the coveted weight bench he has been asking Santa for for a couple of years now. He also racked up on Lego sets of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. The DIVA got a karaoke machine and cds and a cupcake maker, nothing like the taste of a cupcake that takes 25 seconds to cook, mmmm! Both kids got ipods for Christmas too, Santa figures it will save us on batteries for the portable cd player since we were changing them at least once or twice a week.

The kids also got enough movies between them to occupy us every night during break. We have watched the Hulk, Kung Fu Panda, Indiana Jones and Wall-E. There are still a couple of others around here we have not gotten to yet but I am sure we will since school doesn't start back until Jan 12th.

The New Year was rung in quietly at home with Chris and the kids. The kids made it to midnight with the DIVA getting a power nap in at 11:30 only to catch a second wind just before midnight. There was no getting her to bed after that, ugh!!

I have set a whole new record on encountering my first Most Embarassing Moment of 2009!! Yesterday my mom and sister and I went to the movies, after it was over I took a tumble down the stairs of the darkened theater and busted up my left arm and elbow and my pride. I am brusied and sore but nothing is broken. Thnakfully it was dark in there so no one could see my face so I should not get recognized around town...Ha! Ha!

This week will be spent finishing taking down the Christmas decor and praying for a phone call letting us know if Chris will be heading to ATL for another interview. Keep us in your prayers as we anxiously await any type of good news right now! We would love to go to ATL and pray that if that is the Lords will that He will act quickly!

Hope everyone has a healthy and happy 2009!