Its a Wonderful Life

Junior had to pick Tyle up from school a little early, so when I picked Olivia up from Daycare, it was just the two of us to run an errand and head home to cook dinner for our little family :) Oh yeah, and we may have stopped by Brusters.

We got our dinner started, and sat down to do a little homework and studying. Tyler had a rough time with his Spelling test last Friday, and since he wasn't home last week (see previous post) I didn't get to help him or make sure he worked on it. So we went through the words, and made some letters to practice spelling with.

Olivia had a simple math sheet to do, but for some reason, she decided to make it complicated.  She busted out the math blocks that my friend Tammy loaned me when Olivia first started struggling with math. I gave her a couple of pie plates to use to add.  YEAH! ADD!! She can totally do it.  The sheet was actually a timed exercise, to see how many simple problems she could do in a certain amount of time, but her homework was just to finish the sheet, so she did it the way she wanted to do it. (with a little extra time and attention) And, you know I was happy to oblige!

What in the world do 2 newlyweds do with no kids???

Olivia and Tyler never went and spent their one full week with their mother over the summer, and she moved last week, so she decided to take her week with them then.  I WAS DEVASTATED!!!! Junior and I both had a pretty rough week.  I made plans to hang out with friends, and so did he.  He went to help out my cousin one night too (what a wonderful husband). By the end of the week, we just had to keep ourselves busy so we wouldn't sit around and cry.

Thursday, we went on a double date to the lake on our boat. The weather was perfect and the sunset was beautiful... and you can tell Junior's having fun by the wake behind the boat :). He was actually going easy at this point :).

 Friday night, we went over to my friends Beth and Ben's for some delicious food and some relaxing hanging out.  It was nice to have my honey around to get to know some of my friends from school.  Since I work so far away, its not often that he comes to my after school affairs.

Saturday, we went motorcycle riding up to blood mountain with some friends. We stopped and had a delicious lunch, and headed home so I could get ready for girls' night out with some friends from church, and so Junior could work on his hot rod and do "man stuff" with his buddy, Kevin.

Here's the group... we're not in the back very often, so I took the photo op :)

Ignore the Helmet Head...

Sunday, I had already had plans to go with my sister and some friends from college to Wolf Mountain Winery for brunch and a wine tasting.  We had a TOTAL BLAST!!! They tagged me in some pics on facebook, but I only have this one from walking up.  The mountains were beautiful, the food was amazing, and the weather was terrific. And we laughed and laughed and had a great time :). I want to go back sometime and take Junior :).... maybe we can ride our Motorcycle up there.... its not exactly a "biker bar" but it could be a nice date :).

Monday, I wanted to cook Junior a nice dinner and spend some more quality time together before the kids FINALLY came back home Tuesday. Dinner was great and we had a nice evening together.

Now, back to real life!!! Welcome Home Babies! We Missed you Terribly!!!!

The joys of slang phrases in middle school :)

I've been teaching a volleyball unit to my girls in PE and to warm up and get them excited about the games, we've been playing "no rules, no boundaries" for a few minutes before getting started, which is exactly what it sounds like, and using about 10 volleyballs. They have really been getting into it. At the beginning of class today, one of my precious students shouts across the gym to me, "MRS. LANCE! Are we FREE BALLING again today?" I thought it was hilarious, but of course, I pretended like nothing happend. But later, some of my other students told her what else it could mean, and she came to me to apologize. As sweet as that was, though, it still cracks me up!!

Uuuuuhhhh, uh, uuuu uuuu uuuuuhhhhhh!!!! (That's the song that goes along with the Tomahawk Chop)

Thanks Tressa for the Braves Tickets!!!! We had a blast!!! :)

Here we are settling into our seats and getting comfy :)

Star Spangled Banner

Blue Icees :)

Family Photo Op on the way out...

One of the reasons why we left in the 7th inning...

And here's what happened when 2 exhausted parents tried to get in a little cat-nap before having to cook dinner....

Productive Saturday, but still a good one :), make that a great one

Olivia had an EEG Saturday morning for her regular follow-up.  They want the patients to go to sleep during the EEG, so they tell you that they should be "sleep deprived" when they get there.  Luckily, we got the first apointment, at 8am, so she didn't have to stay up too late since she was getting up at 6:30.  Junior was helping Matt work on his car, so Lindsey came up, and our good friend Tressa.  I forgot, when I invited them to come over at 8:30 after the kids would be in bed, that Olivia would be staying up. But they didn't care, and it was pretty cool to have my best girl in on girls' night :).  Olivia was asking Tressa when her birthday was, so I guess she had birthdays on the brain.  She made Tressa a party hat, with a T for Tressa, a happy birthday sign, and a flower made out of a pipe cleaner on it. (Oh, and Tressa's Birthday is in November...btw)  After Lindsey and Tressa had so much fun with her hat, Olivia decided to make one for Lindsey too...

Finally, around 10, we were reading books, and Olivia could hardly hold her head up, so I let her go to bed.... and she seemed to be pretty sleep deprived when I got her up at 6:30!  She did good, though.  We stopped by McDonalds for some hash browns to eat on the way (to keep her awake on the way to Atlanta) We got there in perfect time.  She was so big and brave.  She's a great patient!  Here she is in the waiting room with no worries at all :)

On the way home, we stopped by Kohl's to use the Kohl's cash and 20% off coupon that was burning a hole in my pocket. My girl LOVES to shop.  She also likes to swipe the debit card, and lock and unlock the car (I was hoping she'd like handing over the stacks of coupons as much, but she hasn't learned about the joys of that yet, she just knows we don't buy things that aren't on sale or that we don't have a coupon for).  When we got back out to the car, she had the bag in one hand, keys in the other, and turns sideways to click the unlock button over her shoulder... CRACKED ME UP!!! Little Sassy Britches!!!!  This picture is a reenactment... I wasn't fast enough to catch it the first time.

After we got home, we did some work around the house, had lunch, read some books, rested some, had some friends over for dinner. Overall, a pretty productive, yet still relaxing and fun day :).  We had a great time with our friends Kevin and Sarah.  We've been to their house several times, but they've never been here and I'd been wanting to have them over for a while. They were actually up this way, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for them to drop on by ;).  I was glad they agreed to come.

After dinner, and our guest went home to put their sweet "Baby Kaelan"... well... he's 2, but I call him baby Kaelan because they have a cousin named Kaelyn and its easier to differentiate that way... to bed, Olivia and Tyler went out to play on the slip n slide for a few minutes before bed.  When they came in for bath time, they decided to go swimming in the bathtub.... Always Fun!

"Olivia has a Lobster in her neck"

When I picked the kids up from school, Olivia came up to me and told me that she had a crab in her neck.  I rubbed it for her, and ask her if she meant that she had a crick in her neck.  We agreed that a crick was actually what she had in her neck. I asked her if she wanted to go straight home, or if she would be able to tough it out at Francess Meadows (I'm trying to squeeze in a few more afternoon trips before our summer membership runs out in September). She decided to risk the pain to go swimming and sliding. :)

So, after a wonderful time, a safe drive home, dinner, and a shower, I was helping Tyler with his homework (YES my little baby boy has HOMEWORK!!). I don't know what prompted this announcement, but Tyler looked up from his homework, looked me square in the eye, and told me that Olivia has a lobster in her neck, she let him look at it, he tried to see it, but he didn't see it, and he didn't think he had one because his neck didn't hurt, but if he gets one he wants me to kiss it for him. There may have been a few other things thrown in there, but those are the best parts. I sure am glad Olivia let me know what was going on earlier, otherwise I would have been clueless as to what a Lobster in your neck is!! I'm glad I know now :).

Afternoons after school are so much better when there are cousins involved :)

Anthony and Julianna came over for a couple of hours this evening so their mom could go to a meeting. The kids finished up their homework before they came so they'd be able to give the playing their full attention. The Roberts kids got here just as I was starting dinner, so they passed the time with a little trampoline fun while they waited. (Julianna was not a fan, she helped me check on dinner while the bigger kids jumped.)

The kitchen table was just the right size for a family dinner.

There was a little more playing than eating going on, so I bribed them with the waterslide... Whoever ate all their food got to play on the slide.  I sure wish I was in their shoes, watersliding as a reward for eating chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes... I should have fed them brussels sprouts or something for that! But none the less, everyone ate, and got ready to play :).

After the slide, we went in and all the kids got baths and showers. Olivia and Tyler go to bed at 8, and even though I knew they wouldn't go to sleep, I put Anthony in the bed with Tyler, and Julianna in the bed with Olivia.  With Anthony in Kindergarten this year, I knew it was about time for him to be winding down for bed too. Olivia and Tyler were zonked out within 10 minutes of them leaving.  I'd say, an overall successful afternoon :). I hope the Roberts kids got to sleep as well too :).