a GROWING tradition

Although I was very sad that the weeping willow in our front yard died shortly after we purchased the house, I am very excited about watching our new tree grow with our children! 

We planted a tree in Oregon soon after Blake was born and I was very sad to live it behind a year later.  I had high hopes of taking a picture of it with Blake every year. So here we are in a new town with our new tree and hopeful a new tradition of picture taking!  

Legoland or Bust

So it was the Little Lion's big day!  It fell on a Saturday which always makes it more fun.  Since we are so new to the area and this momma wasn't ready for the chaos of a b-day party, we opted for a day of fun - his choice!  

So Saturday found us on the road to the Atlanta area where we spent the morning at Legoland Discovery Center.

Learning how Legos are made.

That's how much he weighs in lego bricks!  I didn't try this one! ;o)

Little Lion had made the comment that my profile pic on facebook was of Little Pumpkin and I, was I ever going to put a pic of him and me on there.  We tried several times through out the day...but this was the best we got.  He was just not interested in standing still long enough for a pic!

Dreams coming true!  Building till his heart's content.  There were two "adventure" rides and lots of different stations where you created.  Here he is building a structure to stand the test of an earthquake.  Success.

They even had a great GIRLS area including karaoke, cupcake legos and LOTS of pink. 

This was her creation during the Master Builders Academy.  (forgot to get a pic of Little Lion's)  It's a "water park" with steps to a diving board, a fruit tree and a "regular" tree.

Birthday Boy's choice!  I promise I did not sway him!!!

This is the SPUD MAX for those of you unfortunate to not know about McAlister's!  The best spud in the world.  Side note only about 3/4 of the skin was left of this thing!!!!

Yummy cookies for dessert!

The evening was topped off with special calls from friends and even a Skype session!

PRESENT TIME! PRESENT TIME! OPEN THE PRESENT AND SEE WHAT'S INSIDE!

(can't say I miss Blue)

It was a team effort!

And I do mean the whole team!  ;o)

He was so excited about all his great gifts!  In fact as I type this it is 10:35PM and Daddy Lion and him are having an all night Wii fest...we'll see how long they last! lol

So special to have Grandma and Grandpa Myers here all the way from Oregon to celebrate with him!  

We never wait long to break into the Legos...this one was a family event!

Thank you to all who sent your sweet bday wishes to him throughout the day!  I had him read/ listen to every one of them.  We miss you all. 

Where have the last NINE years gone?  

Fight or Flight?!?

WARNING:  If you visit my blog for pics, this post contains NONE!  You are free to quit reading.  

After moving out of the apartment (June28), I became lax in my running.  Okay, I just quit all together!  It was harder to motivate and time and summer and house stuff...I could keep going with excuses.  July 12 we moved into our house!  Everything unloaded and in it's spot for most part in the same day.  Including the treadmill...hidden nicely in the corner of our bedroom.  In fact you can enter the room and never know it's there!  My excuse now?  I want to get a pad to go under the treadmill so it doesn't damage the hardwood floors! 

Last Monday (Aug 13), I put on my running shoes and hit the pavement!  Scared I wouldn't make it, I only did 2 miles.  It felt great!  Tuesday, I went for three... a little harder, but I attribute some of that to the downpour that came halfway through my run!  Something about soaking wet shoes that make them SO heavy.  I finished the week proud of myself for running M-F!  And this week I've even made it four miles two times!

I know you are starting to wonder about my title...I'm getting there!

I'm normally a treadmill girl with my TV on CC and tunes blasting.  Who knew how enjoyable an outside run could be by yourself!?!  That's always been my excuse (I can find one for anything):  I wanted someone to run with if I was gonna run outside.  But I have throughly enjoyed my tunes and God's creation.  I have found I AM running with someone:  My Heavenly Father is right there beside me.  Cheering me on, encouraging me not to give up and just given me sweet revelation of Him with me.

I have loved seeing all the little things I would have missed on the treadmill!  The bunnies are so adorable, the butterflies and dragonflies are brilliantly colored, and even the creepy crawly things that come out after/during the rain seem so meaningful.  Then there are the smells!  It takes everything I have not to stop and try the honeysuckle!  And there is one spot that every time I close my eyes and am immediately transported to my childhood neighborhood.  I can remember the smells as I would walk down the street to play with the "older" girls!  So very thankful for this new found joy in running with Jesus!

Okay, if you are still reading you are my real friend and I can share openly with you!  Yesterday, I helped out at K's school so my morning run didn't happen.  After spending three hours sorting papers (that's a whole other post), I came home for lunch and devoured more than my fair share of potato chips.  So after the kids were tucked in bed and the hubs was busy in the garage I decided to go for an evening run.

Because of the time I thought I should only do two miles.  Well, at my mile mark I looked at my time, I was doing good so I thought I'd press on.  As I crossed to the other side of the street to run towards traffic, I noticed 4 deer in the thicket area; three does and one small buck.  (This is a regular occurrence since we are so close to Berry College.)  It's normal to see them in the back yard grazing or along the side of the road.  But I'd never come up on them while running...I must say I was a little excited.  Then I noticed the one closest to me was no longer grazing but headed towards me...

Fight or flight?  Well, I wasn't sticking around to see which she was gonna choose, I chose flight!  I turned right around and decided I stick to my two mile plan!  I was pretty sure she could outrun me and I was NOT about to find out for sure.  And I did not want to make headline news: Runner Attacked by Deer!  Google it, it can happen people!

The life of a 5 year old!

 WOW!  Mark always says "Five is the best age to be!"  And I'm starting to believe he is right! ;o)

Kate the great is really starting to shine.  I love her to pieces.  We (I) am finally coming to terms with the fact that we are SO much alike.  

Both kids went in for teeth cleaning in July.  Blake had a perfect report of excellent work keeping his teeth clean and no cavities.  Kate was informed she had two on the verge of wiggling!  (We won't talk about the three cavities.)

So ever since our dentist appointment we have been in the wiggling mode.  Every moment she had a finger or tongue free to wiggle she was!  So much fun seeing her this new experience through her eyes.

Just in the past month so many "firsts" have happened for Kate!  She is now the proud rider of a two wheel bike.  (This was a much harder sale than I thought.)  She is doing great minus getting started...still haven't quite gotten that down yet.

Kindergarten of course!  She has amazed me with her bravery & her memory.  She had her lunch number memorized before the first day of school.  Today she told me she went to the office all by herself before class to look for a lost bow from yesterday!  WOW, she is growing up fast.

Last Saturday, we had a pool party with some co-workers of Mark.  What a blast!  The kids were in the pool from 2 until we dragged them out around 9 with only a momentary stop for dinner!  They even skipped dessert to get back in the pool.  (No worries they found their way to the cookies in between cannon balls!)  There was however a minor accident.  Kate's goggles came apart and she asked me to put them back together...no problem.  Then she proceeded to throw them to me...problem!  They swung right back around and cut her directly under her right eye.  I wasn't sure if it would ever stop bleeding.

Well, with all the swimming she was out cold on the way home.  Apparently so out, that in the middle of the night she rolled OFF her bed and hit her night stand....yep you guessed it:  right eye!

Our first shinner at 5!  She's actually doing better than Blake...(uh, Grandma?)!  lol

It's looking better and should be gone by fall pictures on Aug 22...pray tell how is that fall pictures?!?  More like late summer pics...I digress.

Another first!  Kate received her first American Girl doll from Lolly & Pop.  (This may well be her only!)  It was perfect!  McKenna is the 2012 girl of the year.  A gymnast (I'm sure b/c of the Olympics) and she looks just like Kate!  Kate of course has been begging for nothing else but gymnastics classes since we moved to GA.  (We will be signing up next week....I wanted to see how wiped out she might be from school first.)

SO we come full circle...

All she wants for her birthday are her two front teeth! ;o)

(I'm sure she'll have by Christmas so I had to modify!)  

They both came out tonight.  I was showing her how loose they were and encouraging her to go ahead and pull them when the dental floss got hung on it and twisted it.  Daddy to the rescue pulled the first and the second after much convincing.  It was barely hanging on...I was really afraid she'd swallow it in the night!  Good thing the tooth fairy is prepared! ;o)

Oh, to be 5 again!

First Day of School

08-08-2012

The best birthday present ever?  Sending both my children to school!  ;o)

The first day of school for Blake and Kate was my birthday...Seems so EARLY!

They were all smiles...though I know both of them were full of anxiety!  Kate the good kind...she could not be more excited.  Blake was not looking forward to another NEW school.  He is a great kid and makes friends easily, but change is still change!

Since we were unsure if we would be able to go to the county schools, I did not buy school supplies until the day before school!  (If you are reading this, you know me well and know that I was NOT comfortable with this!)

 They are at separate campuses, so we headed to the Elementary campus first (third - fifth grade).  So the good news is that every third grader there is learning the campus not just Blake!  ;o)

Blake and his home room teacher, Mrs. T; she teaches reading, spelling & language arts.  Mr. F is his switch teacher for math, science & social studies.

She was just beside herself!  I don't think we could get to the Primary campus quick enough!  ;o)

She was leading the way!  Mind you she's only step foot in the building two times and the first time we didn't go 100 feet past the front doors!  

Mrs. M and Kate the great!  Can you believe she's been teaching K here for 20 years?!?  And her parapro has been with her for 16 of those!  It's gonna be a great year.

Still smiling, though I think she was a little tired!  So proud of her.

The greatest answer to prayer!  See that smile?  He LOVES school.  This is a huge thing.  I am beyond words at how our God loves us so much that He takes care of the smallest of details in our lives!  Praising Jesus for carrying my children through this transition.

A huge shout out to my amazing husband who surprised me and stayed home to help see the kids off and spend the day with me celebrating!  Another way I know my Jesus loves me.

What's one more project?!?

So we got that phone call today...the one you never expect nor want to get:

"The fire department was at your house today."

We are praising Jesus that He was in control!  No one was hurt and as far as we can tell thus far we have lost nothing.  (The stuff in the far right corner is all we have there.)

This is the corner the fire started in.  According to what we have learned, it started in one of our trash cans that was in this front corner.  The blob in the driveway between my car and the garage is our two garbage cans.  Not looking forward to calling the city tomorrow for more garbage cans!  Again, praising Jesus that the lawn care guys at our neighbors house noticed it and took action! 

These are the windows from our garage door.  

I'm thinking maybe I can start a new trend with these blinds! lol

Needless to say we are so very blessed and thankful for God's timing and protection.

Proud Homeowners Again!

Another Post with tons of pictures!

So many of you have asked about seeing more pics of the house we have purchased here in Rome.  I walked through it on Wednesday...some of the work had already started, but these will be good before and after pics!

Here is the view from the front door. 

To your left is the formal dinning area and straight ahead is the formal living area.

This is the fixture in the foyer as you walk in.  Not sure if I love it yet or not...but it will stick around for a while...much more important things that need to be done before I start being knit picky! ;o)

This is the formal dinning area.  I love this chandelier minus the shades!

There is a small hallway to the right just past the front foyer.  It includes our master suite, linen closet and this power room.  As you can see I will be in the market for a mirror! ;o)

This is the the master suite from the entry.

The view out of the master into the back yard/ deck area.

Master bath and closet through the double doors.

These counters are SO low and not sure what they were thinking when they put in wood counter tops in the bathroom!?!  Another project we will take on later down the road!

The tub and shower.  Again not sure what they were thinking with a large CLEAR window right above the tub?!?  We will frost that before I'll taking any baths!

I like this little opening from the upstairs foyer.  I foresee it helping us to "keep on eye" on things going on upstairs!  The doorway on the left goes into the breakfast nook/kitchen/den area.

This is the view from that doorway.  The guys are ready for our table to get in; so they will quit hitting their heads on the low chandelier!

I love this fireplace in the den!

We got a great deal on a fridge that will match the finishes in the house!

One of the guest rooms down stairs the door is the Jack and Jill bath.

The Jack and Jill bath.

The other guest bedroom downstairs.  Kate may be in this room for a bit while we get her room upstairs livable!  ;o) 

Finally a sink in my washroom!  Never mind it's the size of a large dog bowl!  Another project down the road.

The stairwell...nicely hidden!  I liked that!

The view from the top of the stairs looking into the upstairs foyer. 

From the foyer Blake's room on the right.  Bathroom straight ahead and someday Kate's room to the left.

Blake's room, which is already a darling indigo.  (that's the name of the color!)

Upstairs bath.

Kate's dream room!

It will be a fun room...just not sure if it will be able to function as a bedroom.  We'll try!

That's all folks!