Summer!

Well, summer is finally here.  We grilled out last night with the Gerdeman’s.  Kendall and Josh were gone with their dad, so it was just me, Dave and Payton.  Payton swam after dinner while Jill and I canoed and the boys supervised and laughed at us.  We had a great time.  We are so happy to have another set of friends in the neighborhood-someone else to borrow eggs from.

Payton is already on restriction for a little temper loss the other day.  Kendall and Evelyn were aggravating him and he lost it- damaging some pool chairs.  SO, Payton is already enjoying his summer.  He get off on Wed though and then I won’t see him very often.  He will be out his bike or fishing most of the time, I am sure.  He gets his braces on Wednesday too.  What a big day.

Here is an updated picture of Lucie.  She is doing great.  Isn’t she precious!!!  She is a miracle.

We are now counting down days to leave for LeAnn’s on the 6th.  We are ready for a little break away.  We will miss Dave, but he will be busy.  He is taking some sort of leadership thingy in the fall.  They are sending him to Kansas for 2 weeks, but he has 40 hours of on-line studying to do prior to it.  Sounds really fun, huh?

My poor Cassie is having a little more trouble walking/standing, etc.  Poor thing her left eye drains something nasty and stinky and Sammy tries to give her a bath, but she still stinks.  Cassie seems to like the attention though, with only an occassionaly growl at her.  I pray that she just goes in her sleep and I do not have to put her to sleep.  I have had her for almost 17 years and that is like putting your child to sleep.  She really doesn’t appear to be suffering, but unsteady.  Rodney is still kicking too.  We seem to have animals that live forever.  Our gerbil lived for a long while with a hole in his side.  Yuck!

We are making a big buy today.  A dryer!  Yahoo!!!  You need earplugs to be near our current one while it is working.  It makes this terrible screaching and we just know it will die any minute.  So, as soon as Dave gets home, it’s off to Home Depot.  FUN! FUN!      

1 more day!

School is officially out in 1 day.  Payton has honor’s day tomorrow and Josh has one last final in the am, ending at 945.  This is geometry, the most important one.  I will be praying hard from 8:10 until then.

Lucie is doing great.  She continues to gain weight and is off the ventilator.  I hope to post a new picture soon.  Her grandmother is hogging them right now.

I am in search of cups with an initial or something on it.  I might have to resort to my Uppercase LIving friend, Jill for this.  During the summer-well, weekends too, the kids manage to dirty up every cup in this house.  They drink from one and set it down, forget where it is, so pick up a new one when thirsty again.  So, I had the bright idea to get ones with “J”, “M”, “K”, and “P” on them.  If they can’t find their initial cup, they are out of luck.  Then, we also will know who left their dirty cup out for Sammy to tip over.  If anyone sees cups like this, let me know.  We tried the color coded ones at one time, but the kids forgot their color- the boys did anyway.  We also have a new set of rules for the summer.  One included Kendall vacuming the house twice a week.  Oh my, you would have thought she was asked to paint the house biweekly.  It was a knock down, drag out between her and Dave.  I am still not sure who won.  It was probably Kendall, because she succeeded in Dave having a nervous breakdown- not a hard thing to do.  Hopefully our house will be a little more peaceful and clean this summer, but I am not crossing my fingers.

Our new couches come tomorrow.  I cannot wait to get rid of these stinky ones.  They are brown leather.  It took me a month or so to convince Dave to purchase leather.  I am excited to see the new look and get rid of the bad smell.  Milk cereal, dog drool, among who knows what else does not settle well on fabric.  Here is a picture of it.

         

Well, I was approved for my vacation request for Dec.  I asked off for the Saturday after Christmas for a few days and it was approved today.  Looks like we will be heading to Illinois that weekend for some snowskiing- which I have never done.  We have NEVER been to Dave’s mom’s at Christmas either, so she is going to be really excited about that.  Hope we all come back in one piece.

It’s Friday!! & Pray for Lucie!

Thank Goodness It’s Friday!  We only have one more week of school.  It is hard to believe.  Before we know it, summer will be over and we will be heading back to registration.  The older I get, the faster time flies.

No big plans for the weekend.  Dave is working tomorrow and we will probably just hang out around the pool.  Sunday we will go to church then to eat at my mom’s.  They will be coming back from Gatlinburg Sat and bringing BBQ from Oinkers for our Sunday lunch.  The kids favorite!

I have been doing a little research on purchasing a truck for Josh- not right now, but in about 6 months.  I would love to spend as little as possible, of course.  Plus, the least you spend, the cheaper the insurance.  Hopefully I can find something pretty descent for less than $5000.  SO, if you hear of anything, let me know.  I cannot believe he will be 15 in a little more than a month.  Yikes!  We took a driving adventure a few weeks ago.  I have now recovered from my whip lash.  I took him to one of the parks in Dave’s truck and let him drive around.  Wow, I could only take about 10 minutes before I was about to have a nervous breakdown.  I don’t know how I will handle it when we get on the real road with real cars.  It can only get better!!!

Keep little Lucie Putnam in your prayers.  Her grandmother works with me.  She was born 1 week ago, weighing 1 pounds 11 oz.  She was very early, but she had gastroschesis, which means her intestines were on the outside.  She was so little that it took 2 different surgeries to get them all back inside.  She is now a little over 2 pounds and today they are weaning her off of the ventilator.  She is adorable, by pictures.  He grandmother says her head is the size of a softball.  They are really exhausted and broke from driving back and forth to Atlanta everyday.  She is at Egelston right now, from the surgery.  She will be transported back to Northside before too long.  I will keep you updated and have inserted a picture of baby Lucie.

Mother’s Day

I had an AWESOME Mother’s Day!  We went to church and went to eat lunch at my mom’s with Tic Tock, Chris and Phyllis, and their boys.   We came home after lunch and just hung out here.  Later in the day, Dave took a nap and I went walking with my new friend, Jill.  It was a very relaxing day.  I got some new perfume…Jessica McClintock”Forever and Always”, and the kids each made me something.  Payton drew a portrait of me and had a little paragraph about me to the side of it.  Gotta have it framed.  Kendall picked a really pretty flower and pressed it into a glass picture frame.  Josh made a wooden sign that said MOM, but the o was a heart.  I was very impressd.  Dave also gave me some lingerie.  So it was a wonderful day and today is back to business.

Tomorrow night I have to go a Mary Kay party…Thanks Julia!  Payton has guitar and Josh has Scouts.  I will probably be watching Daniel and Sawyer in the afternoon for Memaw to help Josh with his math- reviewing for finals.  Memawkeeps the boys one day a week for Chris to get some things done.  Although, he does get a lot more done with the boysthan I would think he could.  I ran into him in the grocery store today with Daniel and the groceries in the buggy and Sawyer on his back in a backpack.  They alwaysdraw a lot of attention wherever they go.  A stay at home dad is a site no matter what.

A week from tomorrow I will be hosting my “Uppercase Living” party at Jill’s, the rep, house.  She has larger rooms for people to gather and she has ideas/examples already on her walls.  I think everyone is going to love it.  Katie says she loves it and wants to decorate her whole new house with it- when she gets one.  Better have a party Katie, so you can afford it.

 

Finally!

Well, we have had our computer in the “fixer place” for quite awhile.  We just got it back yesterday.  These things are such a pain!  They had to wipe out our whole system and redo it.  Of course, now some things I can’t get to work.  It will take until it breaks again to figure it all out.

10 more days of of school left.  Kendall only has 7, I think.  She won’t have to take any of her finals, which means, I don’t think she will have to go to review day either.  Payton, of course, has to go to all 10 days left.  Unfortunately, Josh will have to take all of his finals.  He missed so many days when he had walking pneumonia this year, that when they left for Ecuador and he missed most of the day, it put him into missing too many days to exempt.  He isn’t too bummed though.  I am very proud of his maturity this year.  Although, I sure wish he worried more about his grades….That sounds funny!  I am one to talk about needing to worry more.

We have made some new friends in our neighborhood.  They are the Gerdemans.  They moved here from Florida.  I am very envious of Jill (the mom).  She has that creativity that I want, but don’t have the nack for.    She sells Uppercase Living.  I don’t know if you have ever heard of it, but it is the coolest thing.  Get ready for me to have a party.  Pretty much, it is neat little saying you can put anywhere-on your door, wall, wall hangings, car,or any hard surface.  She gave me a book last night and there are several things I want.  So, hold your breath and get ready for an invite ot a party.  You check it out if you want.     http://www.uppercaseliving.com/  Tonight we are going over to their house for a bonfire.  They have a 17 year old daughter and a 7th grade son who is into skateboarding and bikes-just up Payton’s alley. 

Hopefully, I will be updating more often now that we have our internet back and posting more pictures soon.