You Woke Me Up

Chase is usually the first person up in the morning and has been waking everyone up for YEARS -- usually to get him something to eat! So, you can imagine our amusement this morning when he was the last one to wake up and came down all grumpy, complaining that we had all woken him up!

Funny that he's almost six and this is the first time this has happened! It was 8:00. No one really felt sorry for him! :)

Jessie Turns 30!!!

I flew out to Georgia to spend the week with my sister for her 30th birthday on Wednesday!! What a fun week it has been! We showered her with gifts all day long. We had cake & balloons, and we went out to three different restaurants all in one day!

We surprised her at work when I showed up wearing a sandwich board announcing her birthday and loaded with pictures of her as a child! We sang Happy Birthday to her in the lobby of the doctors office and even offered some of her cake to the patients!!

Then, we took her to lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant where we gave her more gifts, of course!

When she returned home from work, we went out to eat at The Last Resort - a fabulous Athens restaurant - where her friends Beau and Angie joined us as a surprise to her!

Then, after dinner, we decided to walk over to Hiwire, a nice new bar downtown, and surprised her with 20 of her "closest" friends waiting for her in the back room! It was such a fun day and night!


Happy Birthday, Jessica!! We love you!

Enjoying May

It has been so pretty here, lately! We've tried to enjoy being outside as much as possible! We're really looking forward to getting our new patio finished next week - hopefully!!

Growing Up

After a few years of use, my children have all decided they are too "big" for these cups! (sigh.......) Every little step towards independence is both exciting and sad. I'm so proud of who they are becoming, but these little things remind me of the little people I'm going to miss! :(

Bridging to Brownies

Mary Frances' Daisy scout troop bridged to Brownies last week. We had a fun party to celebrate their accomplishments after the ceremony!Each of the flower buckets (yes, I did reuse them) had a portion of the Girl Scout Law sticking out of it to remind us that we are girl scouts at every stage!

The girls actually walked over a bridge to symbolize the transformation.
As they walked over and received their Brownie Pins, they removed their Daisy smocks, and we placed them on the railing of the bridge.
Check out our new "Batch of Brownies"!!

Rodeo Carnival (lost post)

Somehow, this entry never posted...so here it is...

After several years of wasting my money on rodeo/concert tickets for the kids, I decided to only take them to the carnival! Mary Frances didn't get to go, as I mentioned in an earlier post. So, each of the boys was allowed to take a friend!

I love this one!

Mom's Munch 2011

For FOUR years straight, I have had the wonderful pleasure of attending Mom's Munch! It is our preschool's celebration of Mother's Day. Chase has been looking forward to it for months! He could not wait for me to come to his school so that he could shower me with handmade gifts and serve me breakfast!We had a great time together. We are all starting to get a little sad about him graduating from preschool this year. We decided to put him in the Bridge program instead of kindergarten this past year, and it was a great decision! He could have gone to kindergarten before, but I KNOW he is ready, now!

His class consists of only 7 boys (no girls) and their precious teacher, Mrs. Zarazee. The boys have all grown this year, but one unique thing Mrs. Zarazee has given them is a unique awareness of surviving breast cancer! They all know what the little pink ribbons are, and most of them even enjoy wearing pink just to make her happy! I don't know how she will be able to let this group go!!
Mom's munch was a blast. I loved spending time with Chase and his friends, and I received a beautiful flower pot with some seeds to grow some flowers!

My Latest Event...

I recently planned a 50th birthday party for a past bride and groom! I had such a great time planning it and wanted to share some of the pictures with you!

After traveling an hour and half from Houston, it was more than 5 miles down a dirt road with lots of twists and turns! So, it was necessary to guide the guests with 6 or 7 different signs pointing the way. I placed a sign everywhere that I originally stopped wondering which way to go. They said, "not yet", "almost there", "keep going", "next gate", etc. I got great response from the guests saying there was a sign every time they started to wonder if they were going the right way! :)

I had custom water bottle labels printed that said, "Happy Birthday, Susan" and had a big 50 on them! They looked great on the boxes of baby wipes we used to clean our hands after eating the messy crawfish!
The band, Zydecane, performed all evening. They were great! Their voices were wonderful, and they certainly kept the party alive!
Silver, Purple, and Black were the colors for the evening. Purple, because it is Susan's favorite, and black, because it was her 50th! Silver was the best compliment color to go with them!
So, we used galvanized buckets to plant purple impatiens for the tables. The table cloths were burlap material. It made for a very unique look!
I put up as many purple lanterns as the wind would allow before I finally gave up! The wind was brutal! It's amazing that the entire centerpieces didn't blow away!
The happy couple - married for less than a year!! They have been such a blessing to us and our church. Their love for the Lord and obedience to his requests is an inspiration!

Out of the mouth of babes....

I found this "story" in Mary Frances' folder this week! Apparently, some of the neighbor's think it's funny to use the word to rhyme with their baby sister's name! Needless to say, I was slightly embarrassed that she wrote this story at school!

Last preschool payment

I gladly paid my last month of preschool today! I will greatly miss Foundry Faith Academy, but I am looking forward to having all my babies at one FREE school!!

Happy Easter

Mary Frances just asked ms if she could have a horseback riding party in 2014!! Can we call her a planner?

Rodeo and Keith Urban

I went to Rodeo three times this season. It was a blast, but I definitely got my fill! I love going to Rodeo and watching the bull riding, mutton bustin', and more! It's always fun to see the FFA students chase the calves for a chance at a scholarship!
Keith Urban put on a great performance, and we had amazing seats that were given to us!

Breakfast in Bed

Mary Frances served me breakfast in bed this morning - 2 pieces of toast smothered in peanut butter and a glass of water (covered with Saran wrap so it wouldn't spill on the way to the bedroom).

After giving me the breakfast, she curled up in bed with me and said, "Do you want two pieces of toast?"

I replied, "Would you like one of my pieces?" She quickly answered, "Yes! I'm starving!"

So, we enjoyed our breakfast in bed while watching Barbie! Ahhh....these are the days!

Nana and Papa

These make me happy...

Hanging out with Papa G.

Although it was a sad week and the circumstances of my Uncle's death were not the best for visiting, we did enjoy being with Papa G. I love watching the children with Papa. They are so sweet to him and absolutely adore him!
Mary Frances and Chase love to hold his hand to "help" him walk around. He is very healthy, but he has a problem with his foot that makes it difficult to get around!

They also had fun telling him jokes! It turns out that Knock-Knock jokes are even funnier with Papa G. - mainly because he can't hear the kids and turns them into a completely different joke! We were all rolling at the dinner table!
The kids said one of their favorite parts of vacation was going to Papa G's house!

Griffin Family

This is Uncles Francis (Papa's baby brother), Cousin Linda, and my Papa

South Geogia 6-pack

We actually purchased this from a liquor store exactly like this! (In case you can't tell, it's a 12-pack that has been cut in half and taped with packing tape!) Welcome to South Georgia!

Vacation?

We've just returned from our trip to the East Coast. After having to change our clocks on Saturday night for Daylight Savings and then having to adjust them to the Eastern Time Zone on Sunday, we decided that we may reconsider traveling that direction for Daylight Savings Weekend in the future!!

Anyhow... we started off the week in Monticello where Ray C. and the children had a wonderful time hanging out with family! My parents came down to get me so I could go to my grandfather's house for a few days to help them clean it up! We were able to get rid of a lot of empty boxes and papers from 15 years ago that he didn't care about having anymore! (By the way, he approved of everything!)
After a full day of cleaning and a good 8 hours of sleep, my aunt called early Wednesday morning to say that my uncle had died of a heart attack. My mother and grandfather were devastated, but we know God had a hand in the timing with us already being there for the news and Papa not being by himself.

So, we traveled to St. Simons Island, GA for all of the funeral arrangements and stayed there the remainder of the week in a condo that a friend graciously loaned us. Ray C. and the kids met us on the island, and we were able to enjoy being with family in a different situation than we had planned.
The children were amazing! They did so much "adult stuff" the whole week with great attitudes. They were actually very interested in the whole death process. We allowed them to see Uncle "T" in the casket, and they were not afraid at all. Chase kept touching him to be sure he really died. He was very confused about how he could die but still be here. We had some great conversations about death and souls.

Chase announced on Saturday morning that he couldn't wait to bury Uncle "T". When I asked why, he just shrugged his shoulders and said "cause I've never done it." My mom and I looked at each other and, at the same time, said to him, "We're not going to bury him ourselves, you know!" He actually thought we were going to dig the hole!

The kids sat through the funeral and the burial service and were excited to see that Grandaddy was the preacher for a change! Jean asked my dad to do the service because Uncle "T" thought so much of him. In fact, he said that he was one of three of the most incredible men he'd known in his life!

The entire week was a celebration of Uncle "T"'s life - exactly the way he would have wanted it!

Texan Day at the Preschool

Chase's preschool Bridge class performed some rodeo songs for the parents and grandparents this past week. They were so cute - especially since his class is made up of only 8 boys! Mrs. Zarazee loves her boys, and they love her back! Aren't they too cute?? (Chase is fourth from the left.)


My BABY!
We were so excited to have Grandaddy there! It was so nice to have some family there for one of the kids' events. That has been one of the hardest things for me living so far away from family!
Chase adores Grandaddy...
and Ms. Barb, his music teacher for the past 4 years...
and Mrs. Zarazee! He has had a fun year in the Bridge program, and we are so excited we decided to let him wait one more year before kindergarten. He has definitely matured and will be ready to do GREAT in kinder!