Happy Birthday Doccy!

• Mia Belle is 6 mos old now.
  
  
  

Balls!!!Balls!!!

Doccy turned 7 on mother's day. To celebrate we invited his class to

a party at the children's museum. It was a great party and Doc enjoyed being the center of attention. Espcially important I think since he's smack dab in the middle of our family's birth order lineup.
Although I did get some mom's to stay and help corale 15 kids, many dropped the kids off and went to watch the filming of "The Informant" and catch a glimpse and maybe a picture with Matt Damon. We drove right by filming on the way to the museum.

Mommy's very own "Speedracers"

Skyler, Jeff, the babies and I got to go to a Cardinal's game for a school fundraiser. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the Cardinal's won!!!
We aren't big baseball fans around here but a field trip is always fun. To top it off, Busch stadium has a family area fully equipped with a mall quality play area. If the babies are happy, momma's happy!

Skyler with the rest of the coolest 7th graders around.

Much needed R & R

Jeff and I celebrated 15 years of marriage this month and we decided to celebrate by taking a family vacation to Florida. We did it on a whim (those are the best vacations because you don't have time to form lofty expectations.) We went to visit Jeff's friend from 8th grade. We stayed a block from Venice beach and the price was right. It was such a relaxing vacation. On Venice beached we searched for shark teeth and sea shells. We walked the beach to the point to view the dolphins. The dolphins swimming feet in front of us took our breath away. Truly awe inspiring. I could have happily sat all day watching them swim.

We attended a drum circle at Siesta Beach also. People show up bring their drums or bongos and to no written music, just play. The beach goers gather around and listen and dance. At dusk, all the people are facing the direction of the sunset and when the sun dissappears, everyone cheers and claps. It was awesome. That's how we spent each evening. We would make sure to get to the beach for the sunset. How awesome to live in a place that can watch the sunset over the ocean every night.

We nearly got sucked into the theme park trap but managed to escape. We have done Disney twice and decided to try Busch Gardens. After being on the beach for 3 days, we decided Busch Gardens wasn't for us. So we left the park and headed to Panama City. We had never been there before so it was exciting. We found it too commercial . The Holiday Inn did have a kids spray park overlooking the ocean though. We continued driving up the coast and made a last minute decision to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville. It was a super cool resort with beautiful gardens. Truly the vacation got better as the days passed.

It is so great to get away and connect with the people you love the most.

Argh, Argh, Argh, Yea Baby!

Is it bad that this dishwasher was the highlight of my month? I have not liked the dishwasher that came with the house since we moved in. I had made phone calls to GE service and they came to check it out and they said the dishwasher worked liked it was supposed to but it doesn't clean the dishes - aka "your builder put the cheapest model in this house hoping you wouldn't notice or at least not complain." After having service men out to say the same thing - this is how this model cleans (or doesn't clean) I finally had to have a fit. I made up my mind, I was getting a new dishwasher and one that cleans. And that I did. After much negotiation, I ended up with a GE GLD 6700 NBB. Yes, you read that right a 6700 NBB baby! And she's a beaut. She holds a cool 16 place settings; that's 16 plates, 16 salad plates, 16 bowls, 16 cups and 16 mugs. That's right. She also has an attachment for 16 wine glasses. She starts hot for a better clean. She has 3, count them 3 spray arms. I can't wait to run it. I got it yesterday and haven't even filled it yet.
I missed the 8-12 appointment window signing up for nursing classes but luckily the installers were able to come back at 5 p.m.

I show up at the college expecting to sign up for the class and find out that students had been in line since 2 a.m. to sign up for the class. I got in but am perplexed as to why students have to wait in line at 2 a.m. to sign up for nursing classes when there's a nursing shortage. (I have learned that it's not actually a nursing shortage but a nursing teacher shortage). And just like I said about the labor shortage in Fort MacMurray - well pay them more if you want them to work for you!!!!!

My Brother...My Stepstool

Before Sebastian was born, I saw a picture in my doctor's office that brought tears to my eyes. It was of two little boys in bib overalls - the older one hugging the little one and titled "my brother...my protector." I loved that picture. While in Springfield today for a post surgical appointment, I made my usual stop at Macy's. While in the bathroom, Seth needed to wash his hands but couldn't reach. So I told Joe to be a step stool for Seth. It was so cute to see the boys working together. After sterilizing Joe's hands, we headed to CHuck E Cheese and Joe remembered his lesson. It was so cute.

A successful outing!!

Against my mom's advice to not take the babies out of the house until they're 15, I missed our library story time. (this is different than the one here in Forsyth) I have taken the kids to story time since Skyler was a baby. We've had the same story time teacher and she makes me feel so good everytime I talk with her - she makes me feel that I'm doing a good job in raising the boys. When I had the daycare, she affirmed me then also. So as hard as it is with the boys at times, I'm always glad I went to her story time. Miss Susan was in a terrible car accident about 5 years ago and lost most of her memory - yet she remembers me, my boys, Spencer's birth story, my first born Skyler and his best friend whom I babysat AND their favorite requested song "Old MacDonald." She even remembers how they went through their cowboy boot phase together. She really is a special person.
Whats best is they respond so well to her and behave like angels in her class. There are 3 regular attending girls. And girls tend to babble more than boys. So by doing nothing but listen intently to her books, they were better behaved than the girls. You don't know how good it feels to not be the mom chasing and scolding the boys. I got to be the gloating mom of the "well behaved" kids. (referring to a previous post, I refrained from giving anyone well meaning parenting advice during my momentary gloat)

An extreme coaster

This thing is so cool. Our painter ran out and bought his daughter one after seeing it!