Camping

Ted and Matthew are camping AGAIN! It is a hiking trip, in Florida. Matthew loves to hike, and Ted just likes to go camping. They both should have a wonderful time. I went to my sale and got stuff. Two more laserdiscs for our collection. For those of you who don't know what laserdiscs are check out this link ----> Laserdiscs

We also got a Childs Cowboy boot shaped chair, Pajamas, and few odds and ends. In other news Colby loves his cousin Lucas! He calls him Lutas. Today Lucas and his mom Kari were over and we had to leave to drop of the camping guys. When we got back and Colby saw that they were no longer here he said oh Lutas bye bye. Then Shane walked in and Colby said Hane Lutas bye bye. Since it was Aggies birthday this month she has gotten money and is so happy. Now she gets to go out and choose something. In the box that Aunt Dean sent Aggie's bday presents, she had some Halloweeny type gifts for the kids. Matthew got teeth, Shane a necklace, and Colby a fiberoptic flashlight. And of course she sent everyone a GLOW IN THE DARK Pez.

Favorites

Today is the day I go buy tickets to the Annual Thrift Sale that I go to. I can't wait every year for this day. This year Kari and Lucas are going to go with us. Usually Kari babysits, but now she has Lucas to supply with bargains, like his cousins have gotten all these years. I don't need to go to the sale. The kids and I don't really need anything. I did write a small list. Its not like you can go there and find exactly what you need. I just like having the list to remind myself in case I forgot to look for something specific. Maybe after tomorrow I can post to My Other Blog
I haven't found anything latley worthy of posting. I can't wait until tomorrow.

Birdie

This morning I decided to try and take a few pictures of Shane and Colby outside. I just haven't had the time to take as many pictures as I would like to. My desire is to focus a good chunk of my free time (like I have free time) on pictures, video editing and website construction. This morning I wanted to just get a few shots. After two minutes of being outside I realized that my plan was not going to work. Shane was not wanting to cooperate as you can see by his picture.

It was hot and the sun was blazing. I knew that they might be squinting. I disguise the sun by, putting them where the shade is, or they can look in the opposite direction of the sun. The morning is one of the best times you can get these little guys to sit still for any amount of time.

My favorite trick with Colby wasn't working either. This is where I tell them I have a bird on my head and he looks at me so I snap the picture. Not only did he not want to look at the make believe bird on my head, but we saw a real bird, who decided to land on the truck. At this point my idea of a nice shot of them sitting still was gone. I have posted the best of my attempts with picture taking below.

Hitchhikers

Shelving

We got the shelves done in the garage area. Now they are waiting to be filled. Our new little cousin was born yesterday too. We can't wait to see him.

Storage

HERE WE GO AGAIN

We are again back at working on the renovation. We decided to declutter the living room. That is what the 2nd picture of this post is. It is only one wall of the living room.

I took lots of pictures of the clutter in the room, but decided not to bore you with our clutter. We are beginning to work on the small garage storage area. This is where we are going to put all of the clutter. This is good since the washer is leaking again, and we can't do too much in the new bedroom addition, until the plumber comes and fixes that pipe. We will eventually get it done, and as you can tell we aren't in any rush. Here is Shane at Soccer this morning, he really seems to like it.

Birthday

Today is Aggie's 17th birthday. She had half of a day at school. When she got home we watched her open all of her presents from us. Then we went to Olive Garden for a late lunch. Last night we had a birthday cake, and we suprised her at a friends house. She wasn't expecting a cake. Here are some pictures of her opening presents. She had two little helpers handing them to her. She got a black Roxy sweatshirt. A black pair of chunky shoes to go with her new outfit. The outfit was a pin stiped black shirt and pair of black pants from Express. Its a nicer outfit. Not like typical jeans, something a little dressier. She also got a new jean jacket, a jewelry box, 3 new pairs of earrings and a necklace. And last but not least a new throw, that is green, soft and fuzzy sorta like a stuffed animal. We will be having a get-together soon for Aggie. I will send everyone invitations via email when we get details ready. All of our lives were too crazy to do it this weekend.

Pair

So, we are back form our quick weekend, I wish it could have been longer. Only because the stresses we were escaping seem to be getting worse. I have so much to be thankful for, yet I seem to find plenty of time to wallow in the things that aren't going well at the time. 14 years ago, Ted and I could pay our rent but barely had enough money left for food. I know we didn't have it bad. I just know we have so much more now, that I take for granted all of the time. I do appreciate being able to get away with Ted this past weekend. I would have never guessed that I would be where I am today, back then. I know that Ted has been there with me through the past 14 years, and for that I am truly thankful.

4Ever 2Go

We made it back late Sunday evening. Here we are with Woody and Jesse right after getting soaked on Splash Mountain. The next picture is of dinner later on that evening in Japan. Thanks everyone who helped with and endured the kids. We really appreciate all you did, more than you will ever know. I have lots to do this week with stuff I've been piling up in a big pile. I will give everyone any update and post more pictures. I may take a while to get everything done. I have a very busy calender until the middle of October. I will post as I have time. Here is the link to some Disney Photos from our trip.

14 years

September 18th 1991

No posts over the weekend. See you on Monday!!

Sad Log

I am still editing the pictures of the kids I took today. You will see them here on the blog sometime next week maybe. I also haven't had any time what so ever to update the website. I just won't have time for awhile either. Here is a picture of our 2 + year old dog Sawyer that I took today.

Finished

Today was the day Matthew completed something he has been working on for 2 years and 9 months, give or take a few days. He logged 50 hours of play on his memory card. He finally beat Kingdom Hearts for Ps2. Now he can devote all of his video game time to the Gameboy version of Kingdom Hearts. That was worth all that money his Grandma Valeri spent on him.

Colby is busy talking up a storm, Shane is anxiously awaiting the Soccer season to get rolling. Aggie is working, on tests and a big project for History. Thanks everyone for checking up on us.

Boys

Babies

Soon we will have a new little California boy. We can't wait to meet him.

Colby

Shane

Matthew

Complete?

Okay so I wanted to show off the bike we just got me. I think our collection is complete. Well that is if we don't find a bigger bike for Aggie. (She likes the one she is riding) She is riding a Dyno Bmx right now.

Waiting

I ordered this Audio set of a dramatization on the Narnia books for the family, last week. I am so excited and can't wait until it gets here. Aggie, Matthew, Shane (Ted and I as well) have always loved the Adventures in Odyssey stuff they produce. I am sure we are really going to like the Narnia Radio Theatre stuff. I hope everyone has a great weekend. I got the weekend started out right by swimming in the just perfect temperature pool today TWICE. It hasn't heated up to boiling yet, since the weather has been cooler. We plan to stay in the garage and work this weekend.

Coolest

Blogging with a 32" LCD monitor (Not mine to keep BOO HOO)

Tower

Here is a tower that Shane and Matthew built tonight. They even put wheels on the bottom of it so that it could roll around from place to place. I read this verse today and thought I would share it ....he gently leads those that have young Isaiah 40:11b

Psalm 61:3

Activities

So, today was Tennis Tuesday. Matthew had his second lesson in Tennis. He is really enjoying it. I am glad that he is able to participate. His mom doesn't like to drive him everywhere and hasn't gotten involved in all the things I thought I would be doing by now. I just don't have the time. In the meantime Tennis lessons are held at Armstrong the college that is just a 2 minute drive from our house. When I found out they were that close I signed Matthew up right away after he expressed interest. I took this picture of Matthew outside of the court. Next week I will try and catch him on the court. We also had Boy Scouts tonight. It was Matthew's first time to be the Acting Patrol Leader. He is Assistant Patrol leader and the Patrol leader was out of town tonight. The boys planned their menu for the next campout which will be at Fort Clinch, Florida.

Cannonball

Here are a few snapshots of everyone enjoying their Labor day. We had a picnic at Ted's parents house. They had lots of food there and the weather was great. We ate those Georgia Boiled Peanuts, Ted made yesterday. For those of you who didn't know in the south they boil their peanuts. Weird, YES!!! I thought so too. I eat them along with the rest of the family, but I know what you non-southerners are thinking. I was thinking it too, until I got used to them I guess. I hope everyone else had a good Labor day too. I guess this is somewhat the official end to summer. BOO HOO I am sad to see it go. I felt like I didn't even get a real chance to enjoy this summer. Okay so I am whining. I do realize that we still have several months of pleasant weather (Not counting the gnats) ahead of us. Soon the kids will be spending afternoons in the sand box, on the soccer field etc. I know I shouldn't complain. I am sure we will enjoy the time when the weather starts to cool, and before it gets too cold. I will be posting an update on the garage in the form of a slideshow after I get all of the pictures loaded. I tried to have it ready last night, but the internet went down. Here is the link to the slideshow. I hope it works CLICK Me-->Garage pictures on Flickr I am sure some of you are wondering what point we are at since I said we've hardly gotten anything done. Don't forget you can always click on each picture to see a larger version of it.

Boiling

Matches only had a hot spot, the vet sent home some anti-itch medication and some other pills. I am very glad. It still looks bad but, I just assumed it was something so much more worse. The vet also told Ted, that Matches looked great and very healthy for a 14 year old cat. He said that it isn't uncommon for a cat to live 20 years nowadays. We are hoping we have these guys around that long. I know it will be hard on all of us when we lose one of these kitties. So its already, Sunday again and we spent most of the day napping. Yesterday we emptied and then refilled the pool. We got some kind of fungus that just didn't go away. We tried several things but didn't really get any results. I think it was lack of maintenance on our part. We just have to take better care of the daily upkeep. The kids got in the pool today but, after they told me there were no warm spots, I decided I would wait. Ted is fixing boiled peanuts for Labor Day. He is also fixing the garage door lock. Now that we have the wall somewhat up, we need to make sure we can close and open the garage. We have always done this from the inside. The room is VERY VERY VERY slowly coming along. We are not using our time so wisely, but that is okay. Ted is tired after work and we have so many other commitments. To find the time to work on the garage is hard. We also need down time to spend with the kids, eat, take naps etc.

Visiting

We had some visitors here recently. One was a new little baby boy named Nathan, he also brought his parents to visit with him. We got to catch up with his mom and dad, who are good friends that we hardly get together with anymore. We snapped some pictures of them while they were here. We caught one of Nathan, it seems like he is saying OH NO they got that camera out again! I am glad we got to get together with them. It seems like it was hard to do stuff before but now we never have time to keep in touch. It is also hard because we have two ages of kids, so sometimes the older ones will fit right in but the younger ones are bored. Or the younger ones are having fun, then the older ones are bored. Sometimes I feel split down the middle. I guess in time I will just have to get used to it. Besides there are worse things, like not having your home because a hurricane hit it. I don't know about you but, the Hurricane Katrina aftermath has really had me thinking. I do whine and complain alot about myself when I could have it so much worse.

Nathan and his Mom and Dad

Get away Camera FREAKS!

Visitor Number 4

Found

Look what showed up at our house this week.

It was LOST! Here is Colby happy to see it again.