Priceless!

Parking $5, Armbands for 5 kids $80, tickets for trying to be cheap and not buy the armbands $20, Food for 7 $40 Total $145, Not having groceries for the week.... Priceless!

But, Seriously we had a great time. The kids had so much fun,they loved the animals the best! The animal show was great. We saw monkeys, Zebra, birds, kangaroo, a baby jaguar, cows, pigs, oh and much more it was great! The rides were actually good too. The weather was wonderful, and it was so great seeing friends there. One of the funniest comments of the night was when we were getting ready to leave and Tessa said "I'm ready to go to the tooth fair to get my teeth pulled".

Busy Busy....

The last couple of days have been much better.... I think. Tessa has bit one child at school because he spit on her, but that was about it since Wednesday. We have been running from here to there. Yesterday,they had stayed in after school care, to which Ella said "Well, I'm never doing that again" I asked her why and she said it was horrible, her and her best friend had gotten in a fight which they do every day and so she wasn't staying in after school anymore.... Then, Tessa, Ella, and Gracie had dance class which they are loving... then supper baths and bedtime and the whole day was gone. I got a call last night that everyone was running out of Gas so I headed to the gas station... I could not be stuck at home with no gas. Anyway, I got to the gas station and there was plenty of gas, a good thing.
This morning, we scrambled to get ready. I woke up to Gracie, Ella, and Tessa in the bed, one on the left, one on the right and one at my feet, Isaiah came in to wake us up and I said how many people are in this bed? to which he says "Well, at least you don't have to go to everyone's room to wake them up!" That is true... Anyway, we just couldn't get out of bed so at 6:50 we finally got up and Emma had to be at school by 7:30 to which we pulled in at 7:34. Good thing we have such a good system of getting ready. Now, you are going to think this is bad, but here's what we do. We get baths at night and go ahead and they sleep in their clothes for the next morning. This is a real timesaver! And, that parenting tip was free for those who read this....

Mad Cow??!!!

Mad Cow disease?? Really this is the only thing that can possibly describe this, and by this I mean Tessa. She has been on and off sick for a couple of months, and now she is just acting plain crazy. So here's what she did today. She dumped Gracie's whole chest of drawer of clothes out on the floor, not only out, but threw them across the entire room, not only that, she has thrown every shoe they have out of the shoe bucket, and took the pictures of their names off of the walls and took the glass out of the frames. This probably sounds like I wasn't watching them, but honestly all this took place in the span of me trying to fix supper, wash clothes, put up groceries etc..... I don't know what to do. Right now, my heart is racing and I feel like I'm about to lose my mind! Is this normal??? Do these describe Mad Cow disease, or mad child???!! Please let tomorrow be better...

I'm Back

I feel like I have been absent from the blogging world lately. Last week was a very busy week, and the weekend was about the same. Isaiah had a ball game Saturday and then me and the girls took off to Red top mountain to see some reinacting from the 1800's. It was very interesting, we got there kind of late so we missed some of the main events like cooking on coals and other things but we did get to see how they made shingles for roofs, and we got to see horshoe's being made from the hot coals. After that we ate at the lodge. Everyone had a pretty good time except Emma, but I think it's just the age. She practically found something to gripe about the entire day. Anyway, after that we went to a Birthday party for Isaiah's good friend Brandon, and then it was bedtime. Yesterday was nice, after church we had a relaxing afternoon at home, I did a little reading a little napping and then I got to go to XL and hold precious babies. Then today, we had staff planning and I must say it was very refreshing. Jarrod is an awesome leader, and he truly is doing what God is calling him to do. He is right on target helping us to help people to find and follow God's plan for their lives and I love that! I am really looking forward to tomorrow's planning day. We really do have the best team ever and I feel so blessed to be able to work with such Godly people, who truly care about eachother.
So, the night is coming to and end, we have had supper and are contemplating baking chocolate chip cookies.... If there just wasn't a mess to clean up after we make them. Aww, might as well the dishwasher is already empty how hard could a little cookie dough be??

allergic...

So, today when I picked the kids up from school Ella say's "I'm not allergic to anything". I said, that's right. Then, she said "except Tessa's breath & Gracie". To which Tessa's say's "uh uh, my breath's on my purple toothbrush".... Now that was funny stuff!

On a side note, in my spare time I love sewing, reading, long walks on the beach, and going out with good friends. Now, where can I get some time to do any of that!!!

Cooking with Emma

Well, I will spare the dramatics of the day because it was most like any other day just layed out a little differently. So, I will skip to the good part. When I got home from ballet with the girls, Emma had cooked pork chops, rice, green beans, and scalloped potatoes. Yummy! It was delicious... I think I may have a little chef on my hands, only thing is we need a clean up crew to come in behind her. But, that's OK I don't mind cleaning it up. It was amazing to come home to supper cooked, plates fixed and on the table waiting for us. Next, is bath, and bedtime coming very soon.....

It's Tuesday...

Well, today has been a very trying today. The morning didn't start out great, it was hard getting everyone ready and out the door by 7:15. Isaiah has chorus on Tuesday's and Thursday's and has to be there by 7:30, which doesn't make for a happy morning for the little ones. I haven't really had time to go to the grocery store so we were scrambling for snacks. Then Tessa left her library book inside and we were already pulling out when she realized it, which made for a huge screaming fit for quite a while. After I picked everyone up from school I decided to do some quick grocery shopping at the Dollar general (you can get a great supper from here)... Anyway, Emma stayed in the car with them while i ran in and within 5 minutes Tessa had took her carseat apart, threw her shoes out of the window, threw her book bag, folder, and other things out of the window and onto the parking lot of the Dollar General. It was just ridiculous!! So, we get home and make supper while listening to them fuss and fight the entire time. On the upside, Emma scrambled the eggs, Gracie helped break the eggs, I fried the bacon and made homemade biscuits. It really was a delicious supper.
So right now, Gracie is dressed up like an army guy, Tessa is snow white, and Ella is dressed as Tinkerbell, they are at the table coloring and fussing over who's coloring what and I'm thinking it's about time for another time out for Tessa since she is coloring on everyone elses papers...

All is well....

Tessa is all better today! Thank goodness, it must have been a 24 hour virus. We pretty much stayed home today, except for a quick trip to the outlet mall & to watch Isaiah play football this morning. Then, Craig decided to go to Athens to see Georgia play, without tickets... Isaiah didn't want to take the chance of not getting tickets so just Emma & Gracie went. They got tickets & are sitting in the stands cheering right now. I really do hope they have a good time, Gracie was already fussing about the 2 mile walk from where they had to park.....

Not again...

We had a rough night last night. Tessa woke up sick again, I will spare you the details but we absolutely had no towels left after last night. The entire day has been about like the night. There was some good parts of the day. Craig went to the store this morning to get "supplies", and when he got home he made him and I breakfast and we actually sat down at the table by ourselves and ate. That was nice, along with all the help he gave with the washing of clothes and dishes. It was really a nice time spent together, I'm just sorry, Tessa had to be so sick today. She has just layed around the entire day today. Anyway, hopefully she will be better soon.

Lucky...

Wow! I am really am lucky. Today has been a great day. Tessa, Ella & Gracie all started dance classes today. They did a really good job, but honestly we were there most of the afternoon for 3 classes. It worked out fine though, after the first class Tessa and I went to the grocery store while Ella and Gracie danced. It was so nice with just the 2 of us, the highlight of the trip was finding the Dora chicken noodle soup. Tessa thought it was gold! Anyway, after picking up everybody from dance we went home. Honestly, I was getting a little tired by now and dreaded coming home to a messy house and supper, I was trying to justify going out to eat. So we get home, and Emma has cooked supper... Spaghetti, corn on the cob, garlic bread and brownies! The kitchen is spotless the dishwasher is going and there are clothes in the wash and dryer. Amazing!! We, meaning us girls sat down to dinner, since the boys are at football, and ate together it was so nice. Now, as if that wasn't enough.... My niece called and said "What are you doing" I told her and she said I was just wondering if I could come and get the kids and take them somewhere for a little while and spend some time with them? I think I must have sounded a little weird when I answered, mostly because I just couldn't believe it. So within 10 minutes Tessa, Ella, and Gracie were gone. Emma stayed home to do homework and stuff. So, she said she would bring them home around 9:00. Wow, and on top of that my fortune cookie today said "I would bring sunshine into someone's life" (strange because other's have brought sunshine in my life) and the other one said "An interesting musical opportunity is in your near future" I have had that one before and it came true. I had to get 2 fortune cookies today because Gina and I had the same one about Sunshine so I thought we should have a take 2. I can't remember what Gina's other one said except it said something about a short man coming into her life, and that's where we started laughing so hard that I can't remember the rest. Anyway, it has been a good day. It is so nice when other's make you feel special, and that is just what I have felt today. Here are some precious pictures of my little ballerina's their first day of dance!

Weekend getaway...Emma

This weekend Emma went on a youth retreat with the youth group to Camp Sydney Dew. She got back at lunch today, and was wiped out. I asked her did she have fun, and she said yes. As, the car ride home proceeded she said. "Man i am never going there again". I asked her why, I thought she had fun. She said "It was fun, except for having to walk 10 miles, sleep with bugs, burn slap up, being scared of the drill Sargent who was over the park, taking a shower with spiders, sleeping in a 3 sided shack.... Mom, you would never make it out there" She is definately right about that! However, She lost 3 pounds from the weekend, even so I don't think it would be worth it to endure all of that. Needless to say, she took a 3 hour nap this afternoon.