A Berry Good Night

Ah, yes, there's more to post about vacation but that is in the past and life keeps going so I'd like to post about the more recent past...and berries, I love berries.

Yesterday I went to Costco to restock the Button pantry and saw berries, lovely berries in the walk-in cooler section (which felt really, really good because it was really, really hot outside). So I picked up some strawberries and blueberries and a Grand Parisian salad mix. If you haven't tried one you should. It's a salad with a white balsamic dressing, candied nuts, craisins and feta-yum. My initial thought for dinner was to make burritos since it has actually been months since I've made them but we got home fairly late and I didn't think I had time. My brain had actually been clicking all day with a hankering for berry tea and I wanted to ask Tisra if I could take some lemon mint or mint lemon or whatever the heck she has growing in her garden but I left my cell phone at home and couldn't (but I plan to ask for some in the near future :) . Anyway, since the salad is kind of sweet anyway I thought that I'd add blueberries and strawberries to the mix and make berry tea and have a berry centric dinner-mmmm. So Travis took the girls outside to play on the slip-n-slide while I made the salad and some pan seared chicken breast and the berry tea. I'll spare you the details on all of the making but if you decide to boil berries and then need to puree them you should definitely *not* put them into the handy dandy new food processor your husband bought you for mother's day. If you do you will end up wearing nearly boiling hot berry juice and so will your kitchen. Use the blender instead.

So having finished preparing dinner, I made myself a plate, poured the berry tea into a turquoise goblet and went outside to have dinner. The weather was perfect, the sun had just set, the tiki torches were lit, there were two beautiful little girls running around in bathing suits on the slip-n-slide, there was a warm and humid breeze, the moon looked like a little sliver in the sky and the fireflies started putting on their show. I closed my eyes embraced by the breeze, breathed deeply and knew that it would be a great summer.

Vacation Part 1

Our graduate graduated as the valedictorian of her class on the Friday night before we left for vacation. I had forgotten but I did a very similar thing to her last year in July. She'd been at Gov. School for 5 weeks and my parents and I picked her up from the dorm, whisked her off to B'ham and then to Fl the next day. I had forgotten how stressful it was then which is why I did it again. Actually it was more out of convenience to my parents both times as they were going to be in town for Amanda's final production for Gov. school and for her graduation and they went with us to FL both times. But now I've written it down and will (hopefully) remember to not schedule a big trip after a life changing event. But the graduation itself went beautifully. She gave her speech and Trav and I got teary eyed. Tisra was so sweet to photographically document her every move before and after the ceremony. And Eric filmed the whole event which was a total lifesaver since we rushed out of the house without the video camera. And the day itself I was really kicking myself for planning things the way I did. I would have loved to have had coffee and a bagel with her the morning of the ceremony and just chit chat instead of cleaning like mad and ordering everybody around. The upside to all of the cleaning and remodeling was that we came home from an incredibly long trip to a nice clean house. That's always the goal but it really never happens. And if you read this far and stopped you'll realize that I just hit enter twice on accident and published this, argh. Anyway, the party we had afterwards was so nice. Our Nashville family was here along with my parents and *all* of our kids. I remember when Amanda and Grant were the only kids we had and now there are 9! And hopefully this year we'll get to meet #10 (Eric and Tisra, in case you don't know, are adopting from Taiwan.) There was lots of fun, lots of laughing and lots of food. It makes me miss the good 'ol days when we spent every weekend together during the summer.

The party went kind of late and we were scheduled to leave at 4am. There were many an expression of doubt from party attenders, including my parents who were leaving with us, but most people don't know that I get very stressed before we leave on a trip and typically can't sleep. And true to form, I didn't sleep a wink. OK, actually we decided to try to sleep about 1:30 and I dozed off for a minute before Amanda started banging around her bedroom. I got up to tell her to be quiet and that was it, no more sleeping for me. So I finally got up at 2:30 and showered. I can't take a long trip without a shower- yuck! Travis got up a little after three and we were checking the weather when my Dad got up about 3:30. He looked pretty surprised to see us up. So fast forwarding through the actual drive (yawn), we arrived in Riverview at 8 PM. Yep, 15 hours (FL in Eastern time so they're an hour ahead). We stayed there for about an hour, had some dinner with Trav's parents, left our cat with them and headed to my brother's house. Then we passed out. I'd had about two hours of sleep in two days and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Which, as I found out later, was a total blessing since we were sleeping on a futon and the bars stuck into my back. It was really nice to see everybody though. And now since I've already published this and it's gotten freakishly long I'll post more later.

Just Some Random Photos...

Have you ever thought that you had everything planned perfectly and then found out in the middle of it that you didn't take into account that you're human and might need some sleep? So yeah, our lives have been a hurricane of activity for the last 4 weeks and I'm kind of tired. We visited my grandmother in B'ham, did an insane amount of work on the house, our graduate graduated, and we spent 12 days on vacation. I intended for this to be a rest/laundry day but I didn't account for Chloe's birthday and the need for food so I'm putting resting off until tomorrow. I won't bother narrating the photos, I'll get to it tomorrow too. Needless to say, we had a great time.

I'm on I-75

We're on the Macon bypass. On the way to FL we left at 4:45 am. I'm pretty sure that there were bets on wether we'd actually leave by 4 and we didn't make it but not because we overslept but because we had to pack the car that morning. We didn't try to leave that early this morning because we're pretty beat after an incredibly full-but fun-trip. We're making way better time this trip though, probably because I was driving for a few hours. Travis was able to borrow some sort of wireless doohicky so that we could be on the computer in the car. Trav and Chloe are playing some sort of rhyming game but Halle sounds like she's had enough of it. Halle's crying that she needs love. Poor kids. They've been stuck in the car quite a bit on the way from here and there. So handing off the computer to distract them for a while will probably help. Tomorrow will be a regrouping, laundry and rest day...I'm really looking forward to it.

And Finally the Pictures

I thought I'd sneak in a photo of Amanda and my cousin Jake playing Guitar Hero and a get together we had while I was visiting my family in B'ham a couple of weekends ago.


But on to the important stuff. Should I complain again that Amanda's camera takes blurry photos most of the time? I'd take my little 3.1 MP Kodak Easy Share anyday- if it worked.


I'm so happy to be able to hang some of my artwork. I actually find it amazing that I have original artwork in my house. I never thought that I'd paint for sure, but I couldn't have imagined that I'd have friends that were artists either. These two in the black frames are lino cut prints from Tisra. I think that the black and white look stunning against that yellow, don't you? I also hung a couple of coffee cup hangy-things that Mary bought for me ages ago. I hung them in our last apartment but we had 9 foot ceilings and I think that dwarfed them a bit. I hadn't hung them here because, really, what was the point until I painted? And I'd like to say that my "yellow as a colorful neutral" is working quite nicely. I also hung Convergence and Sunflowers in the hall and they look great in their new homes. Yellow paint is a finicky thing though. It looks different in all three photos. I'd say that it looks most like the picture of Tisra's pictures though.

We still have to paint the yucky paneling but since we're leaving this weekend for our trip there just wasn't enough time. There are now white curtains over the window and door but they make me yawn every time I look at them. I plan to add black gross grain ribbon to them to make tie up shades. Granted I've never seen any with the loopy tops that these have but I think it will look nice anyway. As it stands right now they look like they're a weird length. Like clam diggers on short people with curvy hips(like me). They should be either shorts or capri's otherwise they just look strange. I also thought of embroidering some type of simple design in black but then I remembered that we're not staying here forever, that it would take me about 100 hours to do it, and they'll most likely be left with the house when we leave so probably not. Or I could buy these-later- when they're in my budget. Yes, they're inexpensive but my budget is really, really small.

So now I'm off to do more cleaning before the big graduation party and vacation- yay!

Holy Cow

Whew! That was seriously the hardest work I've done in my life. And while the walls we skim coated and sanded and sanded and sanded are done, they're far from perfect. Which really drives me nuts. It seems to me that if you work that hard on something it should be perfect. But it is what it is and the yellow paint is perfectly perfect. I do have to say though, that I never, ever, ever want to go through that again. There is drywall dust in every nook and cranny of my house and couple that with the tree pollen that's floating around here and you have one miserable Amy. I've been sneezing my head off for the last several days and I woke up about four this morning to find that my right eyelid is swollen like, I don't know, about 4 times bigger than normal. Amanda's graduation is in *two days* and then we go to FL. I cannot look like this for those occasions. Am I being vain? Um, yeah. But it really, really looks bad. If I ever think about buying a fixer with wallpaper everywhere, please stop me.

I will post some pictures of the perfect paint as soon as I wake Amanda up and abscond her camera :)

Nearly There

Yes, I'm nearly there. After hours upon hours of the scoring, spraying with vinegar water, stripping, repeat of wallpaper, and then skim coating with drywall mud I'm almost done. Yesterday I took down (with a hammer teehee) the baseboards that the previous homeowners had framed the kitchen window with and I have just the space behind the computer desk and a little touching up to do and then I can sand. And sand and sand and sand. Then prime and paint- yay! But I have to get off my butt and finish it so that I can take Tisra's tools (that she so graciously lent to me months ago) back to her. It seems that the renovation/completion of projects bug has bitten us both at the same time.

But since I never showed a picture of Amanda all dolled up for prom, here you go. Her dress was custom made by someone on Etsy, she has on $200 dollar Betsy Johnson shoes (that you can't see) courtesy of her date, and her hair is by Matt from Dion's. All for what she described as a boring prom with lame music. But at least she looked stunning.

Kyleigh's Blocks

I'm getting closer to the completion of Kyleigh's blocks and it's a good thing since we're heading to FL in two short weeks. So I thought I'd show you my progress. Why am I doing this when I should be packing? Well because I *hate* packing, of course. If you ever embroider and don't have one of these nifty little fabric markers you should totally get one. Goofs don't matter and I even modify while I'm embroidering if I don't like what I drew exactly as I drew it. One quick dunk under water and all the blue stuff is gone- seriously, it could not be any easier.

I've got the letters of her name in weird order on the fabric but her initials are KRJ. I intended for it to not look perfect, just hand drawn and shabby chic-y. I think I'm getting the look I wanted. I'm really having fun with this :)

Getting Dusty

K, real quick I'm going to put up some renovation pics. We finally decided to put everything aside and work on the house like crazy. When we moved in I started with vigor, ripping out stuff and painting, etc. But when Travis started working two jobs we sort of lost motivation so, we're motivated again and here's what we've done. And by the by, I've been using Amanda's camera and I have to say that when I buy a new one it won't be one of those. You have to push the button half way down to focus it and I really don't understand why it won't focus correctly- anyway my picture is blurry but you get the idea. Sooo, we're pulling out the remaining wall heaters in the house. One which almost burned our house down when we first moved in, did I tell you that story? I don't remember, anyway. So 3 heater holes, one medicine cabinet hole, and a hole that I knocked into the wall to determine what in the heck the damage was to our walls was. Well, to determine if the damage went all the way through, was it water damage, etc. So there is lots and lots of dust throughout the Button place these days.


And I don't think I ever mentioned which resort won out. It just so happens that we'll be staying at the Key West Resort for two days of fun and sun and whatever other fun we can have there.

This evening we'll be headed to B'ham to see my grandmother. Things have worsened and she's in hospice care now. The estimates that I've gotten give her two to four weeks to live but you never really know. And since this is Mother's Day we figured there's no time like the present to go. We want to see her while she's still with us.

Happy Mother's Day!

Convergence

A few days ago I was praying and in that time the Lord showed me several things that I needed to lay down. And as I was working through all that I saw a very clear picture in my mind of all of the paths of our lives coming together and converging into one straight path and purpose.

In the old testament when the Israelites miraculously crossed the Jordan river they took 12 stones from the river and set it up as a monument to what God had done in their lives so that when they looked at it they would remember everything God had done for them. And last night I felt very impressed that I should paint a picture of what I'd seen. So here is Convergence.

Since it is symbolic I'll explain it to you. The background is clearly a rainbow which signifies God's promises to us upon which our journey is built. The black at the bottom of the rainbow signifies death and sin and everything that God saved us from. The rainbow is in a particular order and signifies the order in God's kingdom that is constant. The lines going upward signify our lives and the different paths that we've taken. There seems to be no order in the color of these lines and that indicates our lack of understanding and seeming disorder of our lives. The yellow/orange indicates the fire of God that propelled and also guided us from within and the yellow outer layer signifies the hand/power/provision of God that kept us on a path that to us was uncertain. Then the colors converge into one clear path of our destiny still surrounded by the hand/power/provision of almighty God. I hope this ministers to you as it has to me. I have often thought that I'd like to set up a monument to what God has done but thought that setting up a rock altar would be impractical at best. But this is something that will hang in our home as a constant testament to God's goodness, his faithfulness, his provision and his greatness.

Amanda's Birthday and Stuff

Well, I fully intended to write about this sooner than now but things have felt topsy-turvy lately and I haven't gotten to it until now. Amanda's 18th birthday was great. The day started out with home made cinnamon rolls. Travis had the day off and Chloe had been sick with a stomach virus so nobody was planning on getting up early except for Amanda because she had to go to school. I did manage to roll out of bed just before 8 o'clock to wish her a happy birthday. My parents arrived about noon-ish and we decided to do lunch at Logan's instead of dinner. Mostly because we were all starving and Amanda was ditching us that night for "church" (really for some guy she likes that would be at church. But at least we're not making her go anymore). We hadn't been there in at least a year but we did go there quite a bit when we lived in Birmingham since it's one of my parents faves- and Amanda's. I'd like to add here that, in case you didn't know, Amanda is known around here as a carnivore. Ribs and steak are her absolute faves, she doesn't really like chicken and she has a 23 inch waist. Seriously. So this was her choice and she was *really* looking forward to it. Lunch was nice and for the *first time ever, ever, ever* Halle stayed in her seat and did what she was supposed to do without any scolding. She was actually delightful to have at the table. It gives me hope that maybe we could go to an actual restaurant with her in FL with the relatives. And, as another aside, I really, really hate country music. Which was blaring in the ladies restroom that I had to visit 3 times because of little girls with little bladders. It's not like I've never been someplace that they've played country music. In fact, my family used to frequent Po Folks quite often when I was a kid but for some reason it was driving.me.nuts. But that's probably why I've never had any sort of inclination to got to the Opry House even though we live so close.

OK, enough about that. So with Amanda's newly found birthday wealth, we headed to the mall to blow it. Coincidentally it was a tax-free weekend and she wanted to make sure she took full advantage of it. Which I totally don't blame her for since she's saving close to 10 % on everything. The rest of the afternoon was spent with all six of us following Amanda around the mall, which is exactly what she wanted. So in that regard I think her birthday was a success. Later, we celebrated with a triple layer chocolate cheesecake by her request. It is her absolute, all-time fave. And I have to say that it's my favorite cheesecake out of all the ones my mom makes. Of course, she did tell me that I have the recipe in one of my Southern Living cookbooks and I think that's a hint that I should start making them. I'm not sure I see myself tackling cheesecakes yet though.

And that concludes our tour of Amanda's 18th birthday. Stay tuned for pictures of prom, house renovations, embroidering for Kylie and a finally completed painting.

Just Birthday Pictures for Now....Story Later

It's Swimsuit Season!!

Yay! Well, or maybe not. I started out this year great guns doing South Beach and working out but got derailed with a detox program (yes, mentioned before) that in the long run is going to help me to not get sick so often but in the short term has caused me to get terribly out of shape. But since I'm feeling about 1000x's better than I have in months I'm ready to get back in the saddle and start working out again. Now, if you don't like working out you can skip this one, *but* I did find an incredibly helpful article on the mechanics of exercising and actually seeing results. I knew that using weights helped to speed up your metabolism by burning more calories (even when you're sleeping) than fat but it was kind of like yeah, I know that blah, blah, blah. But she tells you *how* much more it revs up your metabolism and that you can eat about 15% more without gaining weight, you sleep better, it helps to fight stress and depression and is just a good all around happy mood booster. I think not looking hideous in a bathing suit is probably all the happy mood booster I'll need...

She's a Runner!!!

Deciding to put Chloe in public school last year was such a hard decision but the spot that we were in with my health issues just made it necessary. And while I don't think that staying in public school is what she's going to do it has been great for several reasons. One of the biggest is that they push her farther than I've ever thought of. I don't know if any of you have noticed (wink) but we've babied Chloe a bit. Not on purpose it's just that her personality has made it seem like she needed to be babied. Now I'm not saying that she needs a drill sargeant because that would crush her but she does need to be pushed/encouraged. Could we make that a word? Like pushcouraged? It might take a while before that one's in Webster. But back to the story. Last year her whole school (actually probably every public school in the state of TN) did a mile run that was timed. They keep records of this so that you can read and article on MSN later on how out of shape or how in shape our kids are.

Last year Chloe came in dead last out of all of the kindergarten classes. She was teased and called a slowpoke by some of the other kids and came home devastated. And as sensitive and wonderful as Chloe is, she's also wonderfully stubborn. I think a switch clicked in her last year that said 'that will *never* happen again. Last year I didn't go to watch her thinking it wasn't a huge big deal but boy was I wrong! So I went today, determined to cheer her on. I thought she'd probably run some and walk some and be really tired so I decided to walk/run along side her to keep her spirit up. I could not have been more wrong! At the beginning she was in the last two because the other kids took off really fast but some of them pooped out pretty quickly. Chloe kept an even pace and ran and ran and ran. It actually showed me how out of shape I am because I had to stop running and walk. She kept saying "Mommy, I'm going to run the same as you" and I had to tell her "no, keep running, I'll catch up"! How embarrassing! She even sprinted at the very end and ran a whole mile in under 12 minutes! There were other kids that ran it faster, of course, but I couldn't have been more proud of her. She said that she was proud of herself too.

Busy, Busy Week

The week started out with Travis, Amanda, and I attending an awards banquet for the top 10 students in each high school in our county. At least it was supposed to be the top 10; some schools had the top 12 or 15 but Amanda's little school had the top 3. We had a nice dinner and were fortunate enough to be at the table that was released to go to the buffet quickly. Some poor people that sat in the middle of the room hadn't even gotten their food by the time we were done with dessert. I guess you can't complain about free food but it seems like there should be a better way of doing things. Then after dinner was the announcements of all the top students, their awards and accomplishments. And not to be cynical or anything but *yikes* was that boring. All of these kids had the same GPA, were in the same clubs, they all helped little old ladies across the street, found the cure for cancer and solved world hunger. OK, I made that last one up. I do think it's great that they recognize the kids and I got teary eyed at one point thinking of Amanda and everything that we've been through, the things she's accomplished and the doors that God has opened for her. I'm just really proud of her. Ooh, and if you think of it say a prayer for her on Monday because she has a job interview at our hair salon for a receptionist position. I'd love it if she gets that job- and so would she.

Thursday I chaperoned a field trip for Chloe's class to the zoo. I learned several years ago chaperoning Trav's class (when he was a middle school teacher) to Busch Gardens that a chaperone isn't there to have fun. You're there to make sure that *they* have fun. And stay in line, and get to the bathroom, and don't get lost, and get their lunch...etc. *But* it meant so much to Chloe having me there. If she squeezed my hand and looked up adoringly at me once, she did it a thousand times. She only let go of my hand once the whole time we were there and I think it's just because she forgot. I did have a great time being with her and I met some other moms from her class and one wants to get together for coffee sometime. It was a great day.

Today was a great day too. Halle woke up with a pretty high fever yesterday morning so I couldn't take her to church today. She seemed fine though and after Travis and Chloe got home we had a quick lunch and then headed out to the park to fly the girls kites. Chloe did a great job and ran like crazy to get her kite up in the air. Halle ran too but refused any manner of help repeatedly and with huge temper tantrums so she had what Travis referred to as a "ground kite". She finally gave up and decided to play on the playground and then we played on the big rocks (at Jim Warren park). The weather was perfect at just around 70 degrees. It would have been helpful if there had been more wind but we still had a great time.

I love being able to hang out with my family on the weekends and am so thankful that Travis isn't working at HD anymore. *And* if Amanda gets the new job she'll have Sundays off...yes, we're really praying. And I'm looking forward to this new week and everything that God is going to do.

Quote of the Day

"Hey (slight pause) oh sorry, I just had a hundred thoughts and they all exploded against each other like fireworks". - Travis

Quote of the Day

"Mom, I need to call the DMV and make and appointment so I can get my 18 year old Driver License. That way I can drive at 2am with 8 people in my car". - Amanda

Thoughts and Looking Forward

I am feeling so incredibly wonderful today! For the last month and a half-ish I've been on a heavy duty detox program and have absolutely felt awful for that whole time. But in the last couple of days I've noticed that I have energy again and I feel much more normal. I was starting to wonder if I ever would. So I took a walk with Halle yesterday. I'm trying to not overdo it which is totally my MO but I walked for a while and then let Halle play and then walked some more. We also went to check out the skate park since I've heard a lot about it and Amanda hangs out there sometimes with her friends. I pushed Halle up the ramps and down the ramps in the stroller- she totally loved it. It was so nice to be outside and not be bundled up and I guess if it hadn't been so windy I would have been hot since it was close to 80. I can't imagine what the temperature is like in FL or what it will be like when we get there.

And speaking of FL (which I probably will be for a while), we have the most amazing treat in store for us. Shane and Angie have a time share in Destin, I think. But they also have the opportunity to trade for staying in other places. Well, they've decided to trade they're points for all of us to stay in either this resort or this one at Disney. So we'll be able to stay for two nights in a beautiful resort on the Disney property. I'm rooting for Saratoga because I think it looks nicer and the pool is incredible but I'll be happy either way. And speaking of Angie...

I (finally) started her fabric cubes. I got the fabric swatches from the Land of Nod and it just so happens that they're perfect 4 inch squares, which is exactly the size that I need fabric to be for the fabric cubes I'm making. I hadn't thought of it before when I asked for the swatch, I just wanted to see if I could coordinate with it and get the colors right for the painting(s) I'm doing. So I thought, "hmmm, I guess I could use the actual fabric that they sent me for the cubes". Which seems kind of chintzy but if I don't use it then it will just be wasted- anyway. I started embroidering her first initial and a little butterfly and flower for one side of the cube. I carefully marked out four inches and drew on what I wanted to embroider and set to work embroidering my little heart out. But I didn't take into account the half inch allowance that I'm supposed to leave for actually sewing the thing together. Sigh. So I'll probably make it a half inch bigger since I don't want to re-do it. But then that means that I can't use the samples they sent me. This is why I don't sew more. Well, that and the fact that I can hardly cut or sew straight. I'd love to show you guys pictures of what I've done because it really is cute but my camera is totally and forever broken. Maybe Amanda will let me borrow hers...

Oh and speaking of a painting for the baby...

I'm thinking of either a silhouette type (butterflies, grass, flowers) with a pink background or a set of four square pictures still silouhettes but with a pink background and a green background. But I don't know how much wall space they have, etc. I'll have to keep you posted on that.

Now I'm going to clean some closets and get ready to take Amanda to lunch. I've decided to be very deliberate in maintaining my relationship with her. When they're teenagers it's so easy (especially when you're distracted with smaller kids) to just let them go and do their thing because that's what they want to do but if I want to have a relationship with my daughter we *have* to make time to do something together. So we're going to Chick-Fil-A. It's not elaborate or earth shattering but it's still very important.

Lots of News!

I have been sidetracked lately. Nope, it's true. I thought that doing the freedom in Christ class was going to be time consuming and it hasn't been time consuming in actual time I'm spending reading or with my mentor but it's more that I'm just focused on other things. I'm not feeling like myself so much lately. Usually when you do FIC you go through book one with a mentor and it takes a minimum of 10 weeks. There are 5 classes and 10 mentor sessions- in theory. In reality you have to deal with your schedule and your mentors schedule and kids, sickness, etc. So we really should be done with the first book but I probably have 3 weeks left. But in doing the first book some things came to light that my mentor though that we should deal with now rather than waiting until the end of book two so really, wow, I'm kind of tired mentally and spiritually and feel like taking a little breather. So, on with the news...

Amanda will be 18 (seriously!) in 22 days. Yes, it's hard to believe and not hard to believe at the same time. You mom's with little ones can hardly imagine, I'm sure, but trust me it's not as incredibly horrible as you might imagine. All of the stages prepare you for the stage when they're mostly grown up. And the advantage of having one kid that is so much older than the others makes me want to cherish every single day with all of them. It makes it harder that Amanda pretty much wants to do, um, nothing with me (not that she doesn't like me, she just mostly likes her friends better right now) but I enjoy the time we do spend together.

And in more Amanda news- drumroll please- it looks like she's going to be the valedictorian of her class! I hadn't really been telling anyone thinking that "something" could happen. But she'd really just have to stop going to school and fail her last two classes in order for it to not happen but she has straight A's right now so I'm pretty sure that she's it and that she'll be giving a speech on her graduation day. I'm so proud-sniff, sniff.

In Chloe news- Earlier this year I applied for a school of choice that is on a balanced calendar. Balanced is also known as year round education. She won't really be going year round it's just that during the hottest months of the year when summer drags on forever, she'll be in school and then in October when the weather is beautiful she'll have 3 weeks off and then again in the spring. Pretty smart, huh? Anyway, getting in is pretty difficult but she was accepted- probably because she's 25% Cuban. They actually look at ethnicity as a determining factor to get into the school. Funny since it's frowned upon in every other instance...but moving on. I *really* want her to go to the homeschool academy at our church but unless God makes a way we just can't do that so this is a nice second choice.

And...we're going to FL in May!!! By the time we go at the end of May it will have been 2 years and 5 months since Trav has been. He hasn't seen his brothers or grandparents or aunts and uncles or his little nephew Cameron (who will turn two in April). So we're pretty excited. Of course, there are *lots* of people to split our time with but we've narrowed it down to 3 people that we'll actually stay with during the 10 days we're there. It will probably be exhausting but we're all very excited. We're hoping for a theme park excursion since it's been nearly 8 years since we've been to one. And having moved from central FL it's just been a huge adjustment for us. When we lived there we went to Disney *a lot*. Amanda actually went on her first trip when she was 13 days old and lost her umbilical cord there- um kind of yucky but definitely unique. And when Trav and I got married we had year passes to Busch Gardens and Sea World. It was so.much.fun. It was kind of hard to adjust to being fun free here. Seriously, we saw it that way. So anyway, nothing is concrete except for staying with my brother, Trav's brother Shane, and Trav's parents and going to the beach. I want to go to Sanibel Island which is a little far to drive but it's the best place to get shells that I know of and I know that Chloe will *love* it. We also want to have a birthday party at the beach for Chloe with all of her little cousins but we'll just have to see what we can work out. There's also shopping in Ellenton, St. Armand's circle, and John's Pass. Then there are the places you've all seen in pictures before, Lake Mirror in Lakeland, Lake Morton in Lakeland, and downtown Lakeland. There's so.much.to.do. I'm excited in case you can't tell.

And does anybody wanna see pics of my new niece?

Lingering On...

Is the flu that never ends. I try to post at least once a week. That way people still check it and I'm not obsessed with it. And it keeps it somewhat interesting. I don't have to write every day and say, "hey, guess what? I did nothing today." But I came down with a wonderful case of the flu over a week ago and I'm still feeling it. I'm pretty sure I got it from Halle who's been puny off and on for two weeks. Maybe it's not the flu but it's some crazy virus that lasts for-e-ver. Chloe actually has struggled with something for all of Spring Break so last week- the week I've been looking forward to forever so I could do some fun stuff with my kids- turned into a sleep and watch TV on the couch-a-thon. I felt really bad about it and then decided that it's not my fault and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it and moved on. Well, I haven't moved that much...anyway.

But there were a few things I did that were right. The first is that I spent Sunday (a week ago) cleaning. I was very motivated to get the house entirely clean so that we could start the week off fresh. And somehow we were able to keep it that way for the whole week. So that when my parents got here on Friday we didn't have to spend the whole day cleaning like mad and I was able to do some stuff that I don't usually get to. Like cleaning the microwave and the front of the stove and fridge where stuff drips but doesn't get noticed until *after* people have left your house. I was very proactive about Easter basket stuff and went out on Wednesday so that I wouldn't be elbow to elbow with the mobs on Saturday. That is actually something I wish I'd waited on. It's not a good idea for someone who mostly lives without sugar to have candy in the house for four whole days before the holiday. That being said I had to replace two of the bags of candy on Saturday (no, I didn't eat them by myself but I did eat too much). And when we went out on Saturday to the Galleria, Sam's Club and Target the only place that was remotely crowded was Sam's Club. The streets were nearly deserted. Weird. But back to my parents visit...

They got here Friday evening and I decided that I would not do a ton of stuff, no running errands, before they got here in the hopes that I would be able to do a bunch of stuff when they got here. Saturday night Amanda made plans with them to go to Panera for breakfast and then drag, er-um, go to the mall with them. Travis and I originally opted out because we weren't feeling well but I was awake by 7:00 Saturday morning and had that overwhelming "there's fun to be had and I'm going to miss it" feeling, so I got up and got ready and got the girls ready. I accidentally woke Travis up and he couldn't go back to sleep because he had the same feeling so he came too. Breakfast was really nice, the mall wasn't crowded, I finally got some more Sonny's BBQ sauce (it's only carried at Sam's Club and we have a Costco card), had a great lunch at Blue Coast Burrito, and then to Target. Where my Mom spoiled the little girls with new Easter dresses and shoes and some things for their Easter baskets. Then we headed home- whew- to take a short nap.

After I got up, I decided to make cinnamon rolls, since my Mom brought her bread machine, and the Easter Bunny cake I made last year. Only this year I made it using this recipe and cream cheese frosting. I used a cake mix in the past but this recipe is more dense and suitable for sitting on it's side. I really like it.

The next morning we all got ready for church and mom threw together some wheat bread that we could eat with lunch (you can throw bread together if you have a bread machine and it takes about 5 minutes- God bless whoever invented that!) and I tossed a couple of pork roasts into the crock pot so that we could have pulled pork BBQ for lunch- mmmm. It's not traditional but we liked it. And mom left the bread machine so that I can make bread whenever I want to. She let me borrow it before but I really thought it was going to be hard to use so I never tried it but I have to say that I don't think I'll *ever* try to make bread without it again. One reason is because even though my little hand mixer has bread hooks, it just doesn't have the muscle to do what needs to be done. And speaking of kneading, I'm just not going to do it by hand. It's not enjoyable and it takes too long. The girls especially love it and Chloe wants me to make bread for her lunches from now on.

Overall, we had a great time with my parents (we always do) and were sad to see them go. Dad says it's too cold for them to move here plus they have to be where God wants them- blah, blah, blah- I'm so totally kidding. I want them to be where God wants them to be, it would just be nice to have *some* family here. But I won't get started on that again.