Lemons and Roses: April 2006

Sunday, April 30, 2006

What a Great Weekend

Wow, what a great weekend! It's been full but very fun. Yesterday we went to the Franklin Main Street Festival. It was cool and overcast outside but it made it pleasant to walk around and look at all of the vendors wares. There was handmade jewelery, woodwork, and art, food vendors, pony rides and bounce houses. Of course, we made an extended stop in

the kids area and Chloe had a great time. I wish we'd been able to spend more time there but we had to get back home to get everything ready for church the next morning. I've never spent any time in downtown Franklin but Travis and I definitely plan on going back for dinner at least.

Church was amazing as usual, even with one of the associate pastors preaching. Then during the altar time Travis and I went forward and I wasn't really expecting anything special, I was going for moral support for Travis. We do have a lot of things that are up in the air but I pray about them regularly and figure that God has them under control. But despite my lack of expectation God really ministered to us through a Life Group leader named Cory. We'd never met before but the power of God was evident in his life and he spoke some things into our life that we really needed to hear. I love our church so much and am very much looking forward to the day that we live much closer so that we can be involved in the things that God is doing there.

Then after church we BOUGHT A NEW MATTRESS!!!! After years of sleeping on the iron maiden we finally got rid of it and are now sleeping- not on the mattress of our dreams- but on a nice mattress nonetheless. It was a very busy day- purchasing the mattress at Costco, driving it home in the rain, Travis, Amanda and myself taking it upstairs in the rain, taking the old mattress downstairs in the rain, and Travis taking it back to Sam's Club. Whew! And btw, since we had the receipt on our old mattress Sam's Club completely refunded the purchase price without even looking at it. So we paid about $50 more to purchase a new and much better mattress.

So that's it- our weekend in review. Travis is gone to a hockey game with Kris and Amanda is at Starbucks with Taylor so I'm going to go play with Halle and Chloe and rest some before the week starts up again.

Friday, April 28, 2006

I've Got the Caffeine!

These words were spoken by my 4 year old at 10:30 this evening. She should have been in bed a couple of hours ago as should Halle. Actually Halle was but wouldn't go to sleep. So Chloe asked Travis in an accusatory tone, "Did you give Halle the caffeine?". I think I asked Travis that and so Chloe was "parroting" me, however it came about though it was funny. Then she decided that she had "the caffeine" as well and joined Halle in running around the living room. I'm not sure if they'll ever go to sleep *sigh*.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Happy Sweet 16 Amanda

Friday, April 21, 2006

Sunny Day

So, it's finally that time of year again. Sunshine abounds (well, except for the past two days) and we all want to be outside. I found out that the pool here is open-typically apartment complex pools are open from Memorial Day to Labor Day- so I took the girls swimming a couple of days ago. Chloe had the most independant fun that she's ever had but poor Halle mostly stayed on the steps or in my arms since even with her life jacket she couldn't keep her face out of the water. It reminded me of Chloe a few summers ago. We purchased a life jacket thinking that it would keep her afloat and that she'd be able to swim. But since the floats were strictly around her abdomen it produced a barrel effect and she just turned over and over and couldn't keep her face out of the water either. So, the kids have a lot of fun in the pool and I don't have as much fun but it's a cool way to get them out and exercising.

So this is some new fabric I purchased the other night to do a comforter, quilt, blanket-type thing for Halle. I only purchased 3 yards though and I'm not sure what to do. It's the perfect length to fold in half and do a duvet for her current comforter but I'm not sure that I want these bold stripes on both sides. But I also don't know what else to put on the backside if I don't use the stripes. I purchased it on the spur of the moment because the last time I went to Wal-Mart they were either out or didn't have enough. But since I saw that they had it again I knew I had to get it right away. I'd like to do the front of the comforter-thing in the stripes the back side in something probably solid, have a solid coordinating sheet and then do a bedskirt in the stripes. But this is

not a perfect plan and I only have 3 yards of fabric! I will look tonight (maybe) at Wal-Mart to see if I can find more.

So, this last fabric I have over 14 yards of! Too bad I don't want a crib set out of this, or do I? Hmmm. Anyway it's a very sturdy seafoam type color with a faint stripe-ish design. The plan is to do drapes, throw pillows, and cover at least the coffee table after I've added some padding and turned it into an ottoman. This decision came after the 50th time Halle hit her mouth on it. The

only snag is that I don't know how to do any of it. The plan I have in my head looks promising but I'm sure I need advice from the experts.

Monday, April 17, 2006

So Much to Say....

But I couldn't possibly catch up on all the things I haven't blogged about in the past week and a half.

I guess the most memorable is that Travis planned a weekend getaway for us this past Friday and Saturday. The Fadely's were kind enough to watch the kids for us- which left them with 5 kids ages 5 and under including 2 one-year-olds- whew! So we headed Northwest to Land Between the Lakes which I had heard of but had never been there. And I didn't know it but they have a planetarium and I'd been wanting to go to one for years. So Trav found out all of the details and we made it for the show. Hiking was also on the agenda but when I looked at their site I saw that Paducah, KY was one of the recommended places to stay so we made reservations but we didn't realize that it was about an hour away. So since our time was limited and since I'd seen some places in Paducah that were recommended by Southern Living I was anxious to get there.

When we arrived we found out that Paducah is the quilting capital of the U.S. and that there is a quilting festival April 26-29th as well as a quilting museum. I'm not a quilter but I know people that are so I thought it was interesting. They also have a large artist population and I was looking forward to going to a few of the galleries but we didn't get there in time and we had to leave fairly early the next morning so we wouldn't be able to go then either. I was disappointed but the most important thing is that Travis and I were there together. We hadn't been away without the kids since Chloe was less than a year old so it was just nice to be away.

We were able to walk around the downtown area some and there are quite a few quaint shops and several great looking eateries. I think I might like to go back but I don't think it will be too soon. We had a nice dinner at Whaler's Catch, well Trav's food was good, mine wasn't. I thought I'd like any type of Crab Cake but these were terrible. But we were seated outside, it was breezy and the sun was setting- it was absolutely perfect. We finished off the evening by taking a horse drawn carriage ride and walking downtown a bit and then retiring to our hotel. Speaking of our hotel- I'd rather not- bed of nails, kids apparently ran the place, the river view was the equivalent of a view of the muddy Mississippi, the power went out so I couldn't fix my hair for the return trip, etc. It looks like it was a very nice hotel in the 70's and they haven't changed a thing since then- including the mattresses. But nothing could dampen our excitement at being together for a whole 24 hours and we were-and are- grateful.

We headed home and I dropped Travis off at work and then went to pick up the girls. The rest of the night was spent shopping for groceries and Easter supplies, feeding and bathing little girls, and getting supplies together to take to the Fadely's for dinner, oh yeah, and wondering when Travis was getting home.........2 am.

The next morning Travis got a bunch of pages from work that he had to attend to and Amanda wasn't feeling well so I took the little girls to church by myself and sat in the back between two guys I don't know- the only available seat :( I was bummed.

Then we had lunch at the Fadely's including an Egg Hunt, then back home for a nap, whew! I'm kind of counting on Tisra to actually document the day but if not I'll write more later. But now I must catch up on exercising, laundry, eating right, house cleaning, etc.

Have a nice day.