HAPPY 12TH BIRTHDAY AIMEE!!!

Bad Blogger - Bad Mom!

I could kick myself!!! Not only was it the Thanksgiving Holidays but my oldest daughter was home and I didn't take ANY pictures!!!! I'm so sad! I'm not sure what I was thinking.
We had a nice Thanksgiving though.
Wednesday was our Family Portrait day. That was an experience. Trying to get all nine people to smile and look the right direction at once was a mess. But luckily we were able to come up with three pictures out of 63 that we somewhat liked.
Thursday of course was Thanksgiving. We all met at my parent's home. We had WAY too much food. The great thing was, my sister in law and myself were able to take most of the left overs home since my parents and sister were going out of town on Sunday. We ate left overs until Sunday evening. You can imagine how I felt on Monday morning!!!!!!
Friday the kids and I saw "Happy Feet". That's something none of us want to experience again!!! My son actually started to cover his ears 1/3 of the way through the movie and he's the main one that wanted to see it!
Saturday we all went to the Gladiators game. We love us some hockey!!!!!
Sunday at 4:00 A.M. - Ashley, Allie, Addison and myself left for the airport to drop off Ashley. Very sad!!!
That was our weekend! Maybe next year, I'll remember to pick up my camera!

Bailey is getting big

I can't believe how quickly she is growing. Her legs are growing so fast she stumbles all over the place. She's very uncoordinated. Her snout has gotten long but her head has not caught up yet. The kids think she looks like a opossum.


Notice, she has her leash in her mouth. She likes to walk herself. Even if you are holding the end of the leash walking her, she will pick up part of the leash with her mouth and pretend she's either walking you or walking herself. Maybe it's a pride thing. : )

Halloween 2006

Here's what goblins trick or treated at my house. I had a honey bunny, jail bird, and Jason from Friday 13th.





We also had Grandma help us pass out the candy. Grandma scared a few trick or treaters, some even just passed us by for fear of what Grandma may do.

Homecoming

Allie's first homecoming was held this past month. She was excited for months before and extremly excited the very day.
A week prior to the dance, Allie consulted with her cousin and aunt for the wherabouts to find a dress for a bargain and off we went. Hmmmm.. there were bargains but of course none of which were appealing to Allie. She found a Jessica McClintock dress and fell in love with it. Once she tried it on, I of course, did as well. Plenty over my budget but it was Allie to the "t" so we had to buy it.
She had a great time and it will be an experience for her memory book.

SO MUCH FUN!

Monster behind the door

It's been a while...

I have been reading blogs but haven't had a chance to blog myself in a while. But really, there hasn't been too much to blog about. We have been busy doing "this and that" but nothing too blog worthy.

Andrew and Mitch have been playing hockey. Mitch scores every game at least two or three. Andrew is looking more and more comfortable and actually scored two goals this season.

Allie and I are still in Jazz. I missed last week but Scott was able to take Allie. After class I asked her about what new steps were taught. She informed me that the dance we are currently learning is not our recital dance. That concerns me a bit because #1 -there is only so much space in my head for new knowledge and I'm filling it up with something I'm not going to use, and #2 - I need plenty of time, why aren't we learning it now???? Is she going to wait until a month before to teach us a dance???? No, that can't happen! PANIC!! I'm mean, I'm talented but not that talented. : )

Aimee and Addie are in gymnastics, making great grades in school, and are the two mommies to Bailey. Aimee joined me on a business trip just recently. She made it a lot of fun. She thought the room was great and the rental car was a mustang and she thought it was "the bomb". We went swimming and sat in the hot tub and then ordered room service. It was some time for the two of us and I really enjoyed having that alone time with Aimee.

Scott is searching dillegently for a lake house -which he may have found. He's working and being a wonderful husband!! He amazes me every day by how sweet he is and how much effort he puts into running our family. He cooks and straightens up the house, runs the kids here and there and even does the laundry. He's the best! I really appreciate every thing he does for me and the kids.

Max works on his jeep, counting down the days until he turns 15 and is doing great in school as well. It's only a matter of time before a girl steals his heart. He's such a cutie and very thoughtful.

Ashley will be home November 21st thru 26th. Can't wait to see her! She's got a boy she is very interested in but he leaves for his mission soon. I think she is kind of happy about that because she says he takes up a lot of her time and time away from her friends. She says he is super smart, infact she said she wasn't sure how the two of them are able to carry on a conversation. (I thought that was funny)

Bailey is getting big and becoming more and more of a family member. She loves the lake and always goes with us when we go. Since it's getting too cold to swim, we have been beaching the boat, building a big fire and making smores. Bailey loves the "smores" part. She gets in there with the kids and patiently waits for someone to hand her over one. We are careful not to make her sick and have been lucky so far.

We are getting ready for Halloween at our house. Last week, Andrew insisted we decorate. He placed Marcus the Carcus out in the yard and did a very good job. He's not the easiest thing to put together. Andrew has decorated his own room. He has created bats and ghost hanging from the ceiling. He built a scarey man with a mask and has it laying in his bean bag chair. He really gets into it.

We have goblins and pumpkins all around the house but we have someone new this year. I found a really scarey looking (I really don't know what you would call it) let's just say... monster. He's about my height and I decided it would be funny to hang him on the wall behind the downstairs bathroom door, so that when someone goes into the bathroom and shuts the door - it will scare them. Well so far, I really haven't heard anyone but myself scream. I actually have forgotten "TWICE" that it was there and about had a heart attack both times. I don't typically use that bathroom so that's how I'm justifying the fact that I forgot that it was there.

As I was driving to work this morning I was laughing at myself about forgetting and then remembered my house keeper comes today. I'm sure Bailey had to hear a few choice spanish words when she went in to clean the downstairs bathroom.

More of Bailey.......

Aimee had Bailey in her room last night while she was working on a project. Bailey found the pile of stuffed animals in the corner and crawled up with them and fell asleep. We all thought it was so cute, I wanted to take a picture of it. She was out like a light too because the camera was flashing right in front of her face and we were all standing around talking about how cute she is. She didn't move.
The other night Scott and I took her for about a 3 mile walk around the park. She's very socialable. She wanted to investigate everything and talk to everyone. It made our walk a little longer than anticipated but it was fun and we wore her out. When she got home she plopped down on the floor and didn't move. The kids tried to take her out to go to the bathroom one last time, but she put on the breaks when the door opened. They had to pick her up to get her outside.

Office

This is my office or a part of it anyway. I should say, this is my desk. The reason I took a picture of it this morning was because it's crazy messy. But, the pictures do not show the extent of the mess. It actually looks pretty good in the pictures. Believe me, it's not! As a matter of fact I've had comments this week. " wow, it looks like you finally work here." I think that was just a nice way to say, "wow, you're a mess." What I wanted to do was take a picture of my office and then take a picture of my bosses office. Even though I think mine is bad-- you should see his. He's got papers all over the floor like he's just thrown them off his desk. But I know it's his on little organized mess.
Maybe some day I'll get organized and have a nice clean office. Although I have to say, being this busy sure makes the day go by fast. ...................................................hmmmmmm.......not sure that's a good thing anymore. I'm aging fast enough!

The new addition to our family.

Her name is Bailey and she's a golden retriever. She's 10 weeks old and so far is a great addition to our family. Even being a puppy, she's smart and only hyper first thing in the morning. That's only because she's excited to see everyone and wants to play. The kids wore her out the first two days so much so that Scott said she did nothing but sleep the next day. He would try to get her to play with him but all she wanted to do was sleep. You could pick her up and she would stay asleep.

The first night we put her in her crate, she cried for about 5 minutes and then stopped and stayed quiet for most of the remainder of the evening. The second night, she cried ALL NIGHT LONG. She worked herself into a frenzy! So the third night we moved her crate upstairs into Allie's room. She was quiet as a mouse. So we discovered that as long as she's in the room with someone else, she doesn't care if she has to be in her crate. As a matter of fact, we've also learned that we can turn the tv on and she'll sit and watch it and no one else has to be in the room with her. This has made our "puppy evenings" much bearable.

This outfit is my husband's doing. He has already bought her a Halloween outfit. I hope she's around to trick or treat with the kids. .........Kidding...........she's amazingly a good dog. I've heard it's the retrievers nature, so I'm sure she's going to be a life long family member.

If anyone is interested, she still has two sisters that look just like her in need of a home.

UGH!!!!!!!!!!! BIG BROTHER!

That's all I have to say!

"All That Jazz"

Okay, since I have so much time on my hands...................NOT..........I've signed up for a Jazz class with my daughter, Allie. It's a teen/adult class at a Dance Academy close by and we started this evening. It was actually fun. Well honestly, I didn't start tonight. I watched. But next week, after I've gotten up the nerve and I've come up with fancy dance attire, I will participate. The thought of being 38 and in a recital at the end of the year is quite hilarious. AHHHHH make that 39. But it was so much fun watching them tonight that I can't wait to start next week. Allie thought it was a blast and gets a kick out of the fact that I'm in her class. She enjoyed coming home and going over the steps with me. I looked much like I was doing the "funky chicken" but hey, maybe I'll get the hang of it. If not, come recital time, my family will get a good laugh at my expense.

More Fun on the Lake!

http://photoshow.comcast.net/watch/Vh4ge9Cp

I thought instead of downloading our pictures from today, I would share a slide show. Just click on the link above. As you can see, my kids are characters!

Traffic!!!!

With the type of traffic I travel in day and day out and the crazy people that surround me, I knew at some point during my car's life time, it was going to happen. The question was, when and how bad and who's fault. Well, luckily, I wasn't at fault and luckily no one was hurt.

Early morning Tuesday I was taking Allie to school. I was traveling in the turning lane to make a left turn and a van decides he wants to turn too but doesn't wait for me to pass him. The hit was pretty hard, knocking me across the road into the oncoming traffic. Thankfully, there wasn't any oncoming traffic. Allie screamed and then fake cried not because she was hurt but because her future car had been damaged.

The funny thing is, I had just pulled out of the gas station where I had noticed my reflection in the glass window. One of my headlights were out. I immediately got on the phone with my husband asking him to please go by an automotive store and pick up a headlight so he could fix it when I returned home in the evening. Then BAMM............ "Okay, never mind honey, I've got a lot more to worry about now than my headlight, Gotta go!"
'

So, it's happened. Now the question is, when is the next one coming and how bad. With as much traffic I'm in daily, statistics show it's going to happen.

Welcome Home!

The crew is back! My children arrived in Atlanta yesterday! YEA!!! I'm so happy to have them home. I cried like a baby when they left and was crying when they arrived. The kids think it's hilarious. I could hear Allie saying to the other kids as they were walking down the ramp from the airplane, "mom is going to be standing right out there and I bet she's crying." I stood there shaking my head "yes" as tears ran down my face.
They were so excited to get home and try on all their new school clothes and see their new book bags full of school supplies.
They were also excited to see their two step brothers, Max and Mitchell.

We had a family day, today. We took the boat out and cooked hot dogs on the grill, swam, and rode the tube. Allie and Max are riding together in the picture above. I wish the picture was clearer because the look on their face is priceless! I've never laughed so hard in my life! I stopped breathing and I'm not sure how Scott was driving the boat because he was laughing just as hard. Since they are older, they weigh more which causes the tube to ride with more intense. They were whipping back and forth and flying through the air. Although they were trying to play it cool, their faces told a different story. There was nothing but terror in their faces!!!!!!! Our laughing got so out of control, Scott finally just had to stop the boat. When the two got back on the boat, they were laughing as well. Allie got back on the tube later but Max said that was enough for him. In fact, Allie and Mitchell rode and it was so rough that they hit a wave, went flying through the air, Allie flew off and then a few seconds later, off went Mitchell. I believe Mitch has a few bruises he hit the water so hard. That wasn't funny, but he didn't seem to care. He thought it was fun.
I love making memories with the kids. I hope the days we share, such as today, are days they will look back on with fondness.

Well, I'm off to start the new school year. Set your alarms................

4th of July Celebration

Scott and I had a few days to ourselves. Ashley was at EFY (church camp) and the boys were with their mom. Of course the rest of the troop is in Utah for the summer.

We started our morning early (about 5:00), left our hotel at Colony Square, took the marta to Lenox and ran the Peachtree Road Race. Which was a blast!!!! As I said in my "marathon bound" blog, it was the easiest 6.2 miles I have ever ran. Scott did very well, I was very proud of him. After the race we packed our things up and moved over to the Ritz Carlton in Buckhead. Our room was gorgeous and we were spoiled rotten while we were there. The bed was to die for!!!! From our window we could watch the 4th of July extravaganza at Lenox. It was fun watching the vendors set up, people gather, and could hear the band playing. As the night progressed, we also could see the streaks of lightening making it's way closer, the wind pick up, and thousands of people run for cover! Oh, and traffic out the wazoo!!!! That was quite amusing. We looked at each other and said "This is the place to be! We've got it made!" After about an hour the storm subsided and the fireworks began. We laid in our bed and watch the fire work display! I have a feeling the Ritz will see us on many 4th of Julys to come.

Cocktail Cove

Another day on the lake.
We decided to anchor for a while at Cocktail Cove. Cocktail Cove is a cove where many people go to anchor their boat to swim, associate with other boaters, and have a good time. Boats tie up to other boats, some look like they are going to tie up when in actuality they are just getting too close and end up hitting each other. There is no telling how many boats are damaged during a trip to Cocktail Cove. Two local radio stations have boats anchored in the cove. Those boats usually have a lot of people hanging out on them and draw the most attention.
So every now and again we will anchor at cocktail cove just to people watch. There are many families like ours having a good time together but there are also a lot of singles in their 20's acting a fool. That's always entertaining. Although the older I get, I watch theses kids and think "if their mom knew what they were doing......."

I told you!

Well, I said back in May it was just a matter of time before Scott would buy another boat and sure enough, he has! Nothing extravagant but perfect for our family. He bought a 2006 Bentley 24 foot pontoon. It looks identical to the one in the picture. Of course that's not us in the picture. That's just the picture on the brochure.

Scott and the boys have been out on the boat twice this past week however yesterday was the first day I had seen the boat.
Here is how I got to enjoy the boat!

As you can see it looks like the guys are in more of a tent than a boat.
When we started out it was over cast but we thought maybe we would get through the day without rain or at least until the afternoon. But we were wrong. However, the rain did allow us to get plenty far away from the marina before it started to pour. What are we going to do? It's cold and we are getting soaked. The little top does not keep you dry from blowing rain. So we decided to beach the boat and put the cover on and crawl underneath. Now mind you, the cover is for storing the boat not for partying underneath!!!! We stayed like this for about an hour or so then decided to brave it back. Afterall, we really couldn't get any wetter. Mitch and I stayed underneath while Scott and Max braved the weather and drove us in. Needless to say, it wasn't the most pleasant day to be out on the lake. I've been in worse though, the year before last, Scott and I were coming from the North part of the lake on our jet ski. The sky turned dark and we thought if we hurried we could out run the storm. We had been headed back home about 5 minutes when the lightening and thundering started along with a torrential down pour. We couldn't see anything. It was almost impossible to open our eyes. That was by far the worse day on the lake!! Here are a few more pictures from yesterday.