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.

My Company Summer Party @ Lake Blackshear

This weekend we had my company summer party at Lake Blackshear Resort in Cordele, GA.

Friday, we had lunch and played kickball out on the beautiful lawn. (shown in the picture) Kick ball was a lot of fun. We laughed and carried on making fun of each other. The red team (which was my team) won.

That evening we ate a wonderful seafood boil with cocktails before and after dinner. Dinner was superb! Max and Mitchell wasn't too fond of it but I thought it was fabulous! Scott and I went for a walk around the lake and sat for a while on the veranda and watched the sun go down on the lake. Afterwards, the boys wanted to swim so we sat at the pool for an hour or so relaxing. When we made it back to our room, it was 85 degrees. The air conditioner had broke. We ended up having to move to a different room. It was 10:30, we were tired but there was no way we were going to try and sleep in that heat!

On Saturday morning, we had a nice buffet breakfast. After breakfast most everyone went home but we decided to stay an extra night. So Scott and I played golf until about 2:00 then the four of us rented a small pontoon boat for the afternoon. We rode around for about three hours looking for alligators. With all the vegetation along the banks, they were too difficult to spot. However, we did see one in the lake while playing golf. Good thing I was able to hit over the water! I would have never recovered my ball.

That evening instead of eating at the restaurant on the resort we decided to try a Mexican place down the street. It was okay until we all thought there was a big dead rat on the floor. I lost my appetite right then and there! After some inspection we discovered that it wasn't a rat afterall, it was a thick chuck of hair. I don't know which is worse.

On Sunday we checked out and headed back to Atlanta. On the way home we stopped by Cracker barrel for brunch and my parent's house for a father's day dinner.

It was a very enjoyable weekend.

Grandmom's Birthday Party

A few weeks ago we celebrated my Grandmother's birthday. It was a little surprise for her. My dad's idea was for everyone in the family to be at a location where my Grandmother had already planned to be. We aren't often all together as a family so it was very special. My brother, his wife, and two boys even flew out from California.

Here we are the four kids. Jody, Jennifer, Me, and Jeff. I, of course, am the youngest. As I'm sure you can tell. ..................................No, I'm the oldest and they like to remind me of that fact. Although, we are getting to the stage in our lives where really- we are all middle age.......with the exception of Jody. He's still in his 20's but give him another two years he'll be middle age too.

This is Kayla, Allie, and Hayli. Kayla and Hayli are Jennifer's daughters and Allie is mine. It's great having girls around the same age. They are all close even with Ashley living in Utah.

And last but not least, my husband, Addison, and myself. Addison has to be right up under Scott. She loves him to death.

Our Hockey Players

This is how we spend a few days a week. Watching our two sons play hockey. This is Andrew's first season and Mitchell's sixth. They play on the same team this season. The team name is the Avalanche. We get so much enjoyment from watching them play and they love doing it. The game they played on Thursday night was exciting. Andrew made their first goal of the night and at the end of the game both teams were tied. The game went into over time and Mitch scored the winning goal!! Very exciting. His dad was so proud!

Bahamas

Here are a few pictures from our trip last month to the Bahamas with my mother and father in law. We had a fantastic time. In fact, the children have started saving for another trip spring break 2007.