Great day!!!

Well, there is no doubt that this has been a hard summer. It seems like things have been coming at us from all angles. For Luke his struggle has been loosing his most precious possession, his blue blanket. I can’t remember how or when his attachment with it started. I just know one day years ago it became a part of him. Every night before I go to bed I go into the kids rooms to cover them up and every night Luke had his blanket under his chin. And, when he is sick his blanket is the only thing that will remotely console him. Over the years I have taken his blanket to the tailor to get holes patched and the grandmas have done what they could do to repair the worn out corners and holes too. Tim and I have kept up with this thing for 6 or so years, never wanting him to lose it. I felt I had let Luke down when we came back from the beach and it was no where to be found. I called the hotel more than once and turned this house upside down. I have tried to tell Luke that his blanket was gone but never in those words. Every night for the past couple weeks he has cried and asked for us to look for it. Knowing there was no where else to look I would walk out of his room heart broken.
Well, today I picked Luke up from school and today was different as Libby is at my moms visiting with her cousins, and the neighbor kids went with their mom. So, today I just had Luke. We decided to go for a special treat, milkshakes. As we were sitting in the drive thru I leaned over and grabbed Luke’s backpack to check for homework and when I grabbed the zipper the small pocket in front opened. And, there fell his blanket. I grabbed it and held it up, Luke’s chin dropped. He has taken it to school with him everyday. On his back no less. No one thought to open up that pocket. It seems foolish really to have so much love for an object but when that object has been your source of comfort for all your life and then its gone what does foolishness matter? So, my hope is that this is just the beginning of the end of a really hard summer. And, we can find some rest in knowing that our boy will sleep much sweeter tonight.

Happy Birthday Libby!!!!!!!!!

Despite the scary storm in the beginning Libby's pool party was perfect. Actually the storm served us well, we had the pool to ourselves.
It is so hard to believe that our baby is 4!
We love you Libby lou!!!!!!!

Painted and Purtieee!

So much for being a stay at home mom. I might as well change my title to Rental property manager. I have been at our rental property all week… painting! At the moment I am a good mix of the color Kilz primer, Lindsburg gallery brown, and my natural skin color . The primer is the worst thing. You can’t scrub it off, it has to ware off. So, I look like I have some rare disease. Even my own mother in law asked me if I was “scaling”?%#@ Tonight is date night too! I just might be the only person out tonight in long pants and long sleeves. If I remember right, I think gasoline is the only thing that takes off Kilz. I suppose I have a choice of looking sickly or smelling ghastly. Lucky Tim!

We're home.....

Well, we’re home. We have been so busy since returning that it almost seems like we never left ;) Here are some of my favorite shots from last week. I don’t claim to be a “Kelly Michele” with the camera but I thought these were kinda creative. Tim actually took the one of us, just reaching out his arm and snapped, not bad, better of him of curse… I mean course. :)















I will miss this.

Happy Birthday to my mom and me!!!!

Yep! 35 years ago today my mom gave birth to me on her birthday. How sweet.

And, almost as sweet, she gave me her grandmother's diamond ring today. It is a family heirloom, lasting through five generations. I look forward to the day when I pass it on to Libby.

The last time my mom and I spent our birthdays together at the beach, it was 11 years ago and Tim purposed, so the way I figure it, I'm 2 for 2 for diamond rings on my birthday at this beach. Not bad! :)

Who's the crazy klepto lady from the eastern block?

Everyday I set up my little umbrella and chairs down by the water. I like to have a place for Tim and I to sit when the kids are playing in the gulf. Yesterday while I was sitting on the patio with my family I looked out and someone was sitting in my chair. I asked “who is that”? None of us knew. This lady stayed a while, made herself at home while we all just snickered about it. I didn’t care, I just thought it was kinda funny that someone would do that. Well, after a little while she gathered her things and moved on. No problem.
Well, then an hour or so later she came walking back by and the kids were building a sand castle. While their backs were turned she bent down, never breaking her stride, and picked up their purple plastic castle making thingy (looks kinda like a bucket) and kept walking. My sister says to my mom “that lady just picked up something”. My mom says “she probably just dropped her shoe”, Leslie my sister says “no I don’t think so it was purple”. I walk up and Leslie asks me if the kids have something purple they were playing with. I said “yeah”. So, Les and I went down to investigate, meanwhile this lady is just walking away. Sure enough Luke says he is missing his purple plastic castle making thingy. Leslie and I look at each other and say “let’s go”. We start running down the beach for this lady. We catch up to her and she is still holding my kids purple plastic castle making thingy along with a plastic shopping bag full of stuff (probably other people’s stuff). I said “excuse me but that’s my son’s” pointing at the purple plastic castle making thingy. And she says sorry but she just wanted something to hold her shells. I said “well, you can’t just take people’s things especially from kids”! She said she was going to return it. (Yeah, whatever)! Tell that to the police! Just kidding. I said “that wouldn’t have been a problem if you had asked” and she went into how she did but we knew that was a flat out lie and she probably wasn’t “all there” any way. So we got the purple plastic castle making thingy and headed back. We were baffled at her sense of entitlement from sitting in my beach chair to helping herself to my kid’s beach toys. This was definitely what I call a Seinfeld moment.

more on the beach....

On Monday Libby decided she didn’t want her floaty anymore and started swimming (the whole length of the pool). Peer pressure isn’t all bad ;) Luke taught himself how to back dive. And, Tim got Chris R. hooked on skim boarding. Here are some of my favorite pics so far.

We love the beach!

We are having a good time. It’s hot..hot...hot! It’s a good thing we are surrounded by water. I can’t believe I used to live here. I have become such a weather wimp since living in the mountains! The kids could stay out all day in the heat, I prefer getting started early and coming in late afternoon to avoid the hottest part of the day.
We got to hang out with Penny and family yesterday. They are staying just a few doors down. Luke and the Libster are loving having their friend Jordyn around. Well the pool is calling my name…..later.

We're off!

Well,we are off in a few hours for the beach. We are leaving before sun up hoping the kids will sleep on the way. Its a risk, I know. Libby is sporting a new do for our trip, thanks to her three year old friend Brynn. Yep, while Libby was over visiting her little friend they decided to give each other makeovers. Now, Libby has bangs and a couple of layers in the back. Nice.

First day in the first grade...

Luke is a big first grader now. He said the new kindergarteners look even smaller than he did last year. Its kinda funny how six weeks can change your perspective. It still seems a little strange to bo going back to school in mid July but we will be thankful for the big break come October.

Sanity is over rated....right?

Well, tomorrow will start the dreaded week that has been looming in my mind for months. Tim leaves for Boston (till Friday) and Luke’s starts first grade on Wednesday (I hate that Tim will miss it). All the while we are trying to get the rental house in order and still build a house. And, we leave before dawn on Saturday for the beach (yes, Luke is skipping the second week of school, I’m just going to pretend for the week that we home school and we live on the beach… yeah).
Last summer was a bit chaotic too. We sold our house and closed two weeks before we had another home to move into. We were well taken care of though. We house sat for the first week and then went to the beach for the second. But, it was a pain having to move all our things into to storage just to move them again two weeks later. During all that Libby and I got strep throat.
This year Tim has a bum hand and a couple bum ankles, Libby has road rash down her face and legs, and Luke’s face is covered in poison ivy with a conservative doctor that wants us to use this useless steroid cream (next time I’m demanding the steroid injection)! There will be a next time. Luke refuses to stay out of the woods and the ivy loves him! What is hilarious about all this, we were planning to get family pictures taken this weekend ( since Kelly is in town). Ha, and I thought the hard part was going to be getting Luke to wear pink. I suppose we will have to pass on the photo session. By the time we will be home from the beach Kelly will be in Paris (too bad we can't follow her there). However, if it was taken today it would definitely capture our family and how ridiculous we are. Ridiculously blessed!

Stitches AGAIN

Now, it is John's turn. Tonight while jumping on a trampoline with 3 or 4 other guys, he took a head butt right beside the eye. This ends his bragging of never having stitches. We got some cool pics. I'll let J.T decide if he wants to post them once he gets back from the E.R.
I think I'm ready to call it a day!

Stitches, stitches and more stitches!

Happy 4th! Tim is spending his in the E.R. Yep, he had a big spill on his longboard this morning and he is lucky to have a thumb. I'll save the gory details for Tim. I need to go back and pick him up.

Forever little hands....

Well, it has been a busy two days around here. We now have a drive way, garage floor, front porch, and back porch. Yes, I know most people build the house first, but Tim and I are not most people (I still haven't figure out if that is working for us ;). The kids put their hand prints on the drive way and I carved their names along with the year beside it. It has been wild to see this all come together. I look forward to a quiet weekend. Well, we will be watcing the World Cup, it might not be so quiet. Maybe, a quiet Sunday.

Cents-less!

Well, we are home owners again. Yeah !!!(I think). Maybe I'll take all my home décor and things (that purposely remain packed a way) and put them up at this new house that we are going to rent out to eight girls. I know that makes no sense (referring to the décor not renting to eight girls). Buying a house while you’re building one doesn't make too much sense/cents either! I’m just missing all my stuff and I keep debating weather I should unpack our pictures and paintings and such. I never unpacked them because I knew this place wasn’t our permanent home so why bother. The house we bought today ( or I should say... let the bank buy for us today) is more permanent but definitely not our home.
Not much is making sense to me these days anyway. Who applies for a job when he is being hotly pursued by two other companies with better offers? Hmmm…..I better let that one go. ;)
If you are wondering what this new house looks like inside, those of you that joined us for our “first house painting party”, it’s almost that bad. If anyone has a thing for primer and paint, call us we can set you up! Or if you are a young, single, good looking male we can probably set you up : p

So Soggy!

We spent a short time today at the city little league tournament. Our good friend coaches one of the teams. They actually won it all last year. However, when the rain started coming down we wimped out and went shopping :) That was short lived too as we had to get back to watch the World Cup. And, I'm glad we did! Did anyone see Portugal vs. Netherlands?.... it was insane.



Jonah and Libby, too cute!









Luke and Wil, best buds!













The Libster.



ps: Is it me or does it seem the blogs are dying? Update people!

more on the house....

We got our basement floor today! I never thought concrete could be so beautiful.
Of all days for a stray dog to show up it was today! This very stupid beagle kept running into the wet concrete and the guys would start yelling words I haven't heard since I worked in Carter County. I explained it wasn’t my dog but I don’t think they cared if it was mine or not they were going to kill it. I had it follow me down the street and told him "if he knew what was good for him he would take his scrawny concrete covered legs on outta here". I wish I could see the owners of that dog's face when they see his legs. What a mess. I wonder how easily dried concrete washes out of hair anyway?
On another note I think John has finally talked me into joining team ION. How could I refuse a free jersey? Now, I just need to get my foot to heal.

June 18th.

It’s been a good weekend. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect with today being the year anniversary of loosing Rob. We stayed busy. Yesterday we spent the day out at DRG, then went to a cook out. It was all great but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about this time last year. I don’t think the sadness in our hearts will ever leave when we think of Rob but at the same time I find myself laughing whenever I am talking about him and his sly sense of humor. It has been a hard year. However, I think I and maybe Tim (if I could speak for him) have a stronger appreciation for God’s grace and of His faithfulness in our own lives.
So too, on this day (really everyday) I am thankful for Tim. He is a wonderful father and our kids are so blessed to have him as their dad. Today, we grieve along with celebrate. Truly, this life will give us so many opportunities to do both. And, with both we will give our Lord all the glory and honor, because He is good.

good times....

fun in the sun

















at Wetlands
















The girls loved dressing Luke up as a girl.






































poor guy!

Ouch!

My kids are in heaven having Tonya’s kids here. Libby decided she wanted short hair like the girls so we took a trip to the mall for hair cuts. Luke got his usual and Libby got all kinds of attention as she came into a whole new look. She’s even cuter…. if that’s possible. The kids have been going to VBS in the evenings so we adults have enjoyed some “free time”. Well, I didn’t enjoy it so much yesterday. I was just playing around on my long board and about broke my foot. Immediately it grew in size and turned a deep blue. I’m alright except that Tonya and my neighbor witnessed the whole thing. I have a feeling my foot will heal a lot faster than my pride. The hilarious thing about all of this is after it happened Tonya said she packed an ace bandage. I asked if she takes one wherever she goes and she said “no”. She just packed one because she was coming to our house. What does that mean anyway? I’m still not sure how to take that?
















At the mall after haircuts and a trip to the Cookie Co.
(we picked up an extra kid...our neighbor's)

The girls.

What cuties!