The definition of cute!

Where's Sawyer?

Harvest fest! Get your old school soap making on!

Okay ya'll only one more post after this one! We had a great (busy) weekend and this was something we attended. We went out to L.M. Park and hit up their harvest fest. If was super fun and we learned alot! One being that Sawyer is a cow kisser! The two cute little old men had to be about 250 years old combined and were an absolute thrill to watch and banter back and forth. Okay maybe a little exaggeration about their ages but they we old and cute! I of course made my self look stupid sawing some wood and then end the day at the park there and watching a Tractor parade. By the way check out that tree! It had been around a long, long time.

My lil' Peanut!

 

Sawyer had his 15 month check up at 17 months! I just found a pediatrician here in our new town and didn't realize I was behind! They said that he looked awesome and will grow out of the whole meat texture thing he's got going on. He'd totally prefer fruits and veggie's and it's hard when we are a meat and potatoes kinda family! They said my little peanut is in the 21st percentile....CRAZY! Memphis was and always has been in the 98% percentile and or off the charts! So hearing the 21st percentile through me for a loop! Here's my cutie! Once again refusing to take off his hat and they even had to weigh him with it on!

Yet another Pumpkin painting playdate!

 

Man! If ya'll thought that the pumpkin painting playdate was good when I organized it then you haven't checked out my friend Sarah's! I drove back to Tallahassee to have a little fun with all my friends. We are always so silly when we get together! I also love being around all my friends kids which at times they feel like as if they are my own. Anywho, Sarah really showed me up! Fun games and painting pumpkins! HUGE party gift bags and a ton of yummy food! It was so worth the drive!

Many faces of Memphis!

 

Scariest thing in a small town I have ever heard!

About two and a half months ago I had mentioned here on my blog the craziest thing I have ever heard! Seriously this is for sure the smallest place that I have ever lived considering I grew up in Miami. I love it here and there is a lot that I am still getting use to. For instance this! When we moved in or I should say about a week later I heard this noise.I honest to goodness was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Hmmm. Do chickens actually run around when you cut off their heads? I was hyper ventilating and grabbed my cell phone and called my hubby and held up the phone up in the air outside! I screamed "what is this!?!?! Should we take shelter in the bath tub?!?! ARE WE GONNA DIEEEEEE? So after a couple odd looks from my neighbors and Brent screaming for me to calm down. He let me know that it's a small town volunteer fire departments fire alarm. CRAZY! First off I think it's crazy that it's 2009 and they still think everyone works close enough to the fire station and can hear it! Helloooo! We have one stop sign and my street is "The town"! If we had a fire I could walk across the street and flip the switch to turn on the siren myself! Wouldn't you think that calling them on the cell phone would work better. Because I ain't lying when I tell you that I know I've seen those peanut farmers out on their tractors with a cell phone in their hand! I was prepared this time! So here it is!

Ask me and I'll tell you!

I am MckLinky obsessed I think! They have come out with a few different things and I am trying them out. So be aware there is more to come. This is a question blog post. I'm sure there are some of you out there that think I'm nuts, fun, crazy or even awesome. But, do you have a question for me?!?! Ask away! I'm pretty honest so feel free asking me anything you like!

All about me!

Do you know what time it is! Blog hopping Monday...WooHoo! Obviously if the theme is going to be post some of your favorite photo's then I am going to tell you how awesome my family and friends are! If you are bored by that then you can just pop down to the next post about my traumatic Rat encounter! I wish that I could say that I have incredible photo's of rolling hills and crashing waves but no! I do however have an occasional accidental photo of my toe. I have no idea how people have an eye for that. My sister in law takes amazing photo's and she is self taught. Matter of fact my ALL TIME favorite photo EVER is hanging on my wall and she is the one that took it. It is a photo of Brent and I on our wedding day...non-posed! So here we go....
(If you find that you want to read the small print then just click on the photo)

This one was hard. I had to scroll through old photo's of Memphis and it made me sad. You know when people say your kids will grow quicker then you think you should believe them! Memphis is Four now and this is a couple things that I have heard from him this past week. Mommy I'm four now so I get to use a big fork. By the way he wasn't using an infant fork just a small dessert fork. Then on Sunday on the way to church he says. Mommy why do you always come and check on me at church? I told him that I just worry about him and wanna make sure you are safe. His reply was mommy we are just learning about God and stuff and no ones gonna steal me so you can go check on Sawyer now. A four year olds way of telling me he's a big boy. ((sniff))((sniff))
I had to take a photo out Ya'll....so sorry!
Here is Sawyer who is SASSY as ever. WooHoo! This boys got an attitude and he's only 17months old. He just cracks me up and I love to watch how he apes Memphis's every move. He adores his big brother. One thing that I have done since he was 11 weeks old is tell him I love him and kiss him on his forehead the second he wakes up every morning. You may think that everyone does this but he came close to death at 11 weeks and I remember thinking that I never told him I loved him as much as I should have. Now it's a cuddly routine!

This is my family and they are awesome! They are always so supportive. I'm missing a couple on here like Pappy Pappy (Brent's dad), Pappy Jim (Brent's step dad) and Grandma Wanda. I am truly lucky to not only have great parents but AMAZING in-laws that I truly love with all my heart. Sometimes it's strange to hear people say that they dislike their in-laws.

These are our dogs. Maka is in heaven now and even though it has been over a year we still think about him alot. Maka was my baby before I had babies! I got him when he was three days shy of four weeks old. He lived a great life and was an amazing dog. He got Cancer and it wiped out his body in a matter of weeks and had no other choices. Trust me I would have payed anything to fix him. The other dog is our Hound. We still have this silly goofy 87 pound hound. He is super protective and occasionally thinks he's a lap dog...UGH! He misses Maka alot!

I just figured I'd give you some randoms! I couldn't even imagine my life not being as exactly as it is right here and now. I am truly happy and extremely thankful!

Call me the Pied Piper...But I won't like it!

UGH!!! This is an awful post! Say it ain't so!!!!! It is so though! I guess I should start off to when Brent and I were dating. See we have a long, long history of mice in our relationship and it is almost a little funny. I said ALMOST! See when Brent I were dating and he lived in a house with a couple other guys that were in the Coast Guard.He told me a story about how he had been battling a mouse forever. Eventually he ended up killing this witty little thing that almost out smarted him. Although they new it was dead (by the smell in their house) but they could not locate the dead rodent. I think it wasn't til Brent and I moved in together is when he found it behind their ironing board...YUCK! When Brent and I got married we rented a two bedroom townhouse in Destin,Florida. It was our first place as a married couple. Brent, me, and our dog Maka which was a 120 pound mixed boxer/bull mastiff! Eventually after we moved in we noticed Maka kept freaking out at the sliding glass door and soon as we let him out he'd bolt on over to our grill. A RAT!!!!!! Yes, a Rat was living in our grill and eating up all of our delicious remainders of grilled fish and T-bone steaks! So we had the exterminator come out and put out poison which by the way he sucked down like it was an appetizer! So, Brent had told me the next time I saw the dog run to the grill to hit the Quick start button and light it on fire. I was a little freaked out by this and new this just sounded to easy. If you know me then nothing sounds this perfect in the land of Gina! Back in the day Brent and I were both Bartenders for a huge night club and he occasionally managed there as well. Along with that he was in the Coast Guard reserves and went to school. This one evening he had to work and I had the night off. So sitting around late night watching a little t.v. I see Maka the dog jet to the back sliding door. I just new that he had seen the RAT!! So I opened the door and he took off to the grill and so did I. I remember Brent saying to just hit the Quick start and catch this sucker on fire but I was just so darn nervous. So I did it! I lit it up! The grill was afire! I heard nothing?!?! I had to peek! I lifted the grill and out jumped a RAT ON FIRE! Bad part was I forgot to close the sliding glass door and I now had a rat that was literally on fire running through the down stairs of our house! Maka chased it under the chair and then into the corner. I was thinking quick and grabbed the lid to our Angel food cake that we had sitting on the counter and caught him. But, what was I to do now? Cry of course! I was bawling and a little ill by the smell of this ALIVE burnt up Rat. Amazed that this little creature apparently had nine lives. I called my husband and was in hysterics and told him he had to come home mid shift and dispose of him. Of course our boss and everyone we worked with laughed at me and thought I was a little off my rocker. But, it was gone and it was all so traumatic! We eventually moved to Raleigh and of course once again we had a mouse. I never saw it because Brent killed it when he saw it one early morning. See ya'll I would like to add that it doesn't matter how clean you are or what you do because anyone can have a mouse. I am a little OCD and I scrub, clean,and bleach everything and I vacuum almost everyday because what I can't see freaks me out! Here is a photo of my fridge that everyone use to make fun of me about. I AM A NEAT FREAK AND GOD SENDS ME RATS AND MICE TO LET ME KNOW I'M NOT IN CONTROL!! So here we are in our new state of Alabama in our new house. The cutest and best house we have ever rented. Big! Roomy! I love it! So last night I got up and went to the kitchen to get some carrot sticks (what I call chips to make me feel better) I scream and jump because what do I see...a MOUSE! Yes! Running across my kitchen floor! Brent comes running out screaming what? what? So I start to spell it R~A~T~.....R~A~T because I didn't want the kids to hear. So what does he do? He says "Speak up Gina did you say a RAT!" Luckily Memphis wasn't scared but he did however decide to name it! I can't wait til we buy our first house. At least we'll own the rat!

Pumpkin Painting Party!

 

I know I had posted yesterday about what is to come and that I was preparing. This is what I was preparing for! As I had said before that I am an Organizer for a moms meet-up group through meet-up.com and I had hosted a pumpkin painting party here at the house. It was so much fun! We had about 10-15 kiddo's running wild through the house and shoveling Doritos's and chocolate chip cookies into to their mouths. They played and played and played and it was great to be able to sit and talk with other moms about something other then lack of sleep and poo! I thankfully have an AMAZING husband that came home from work and instantly helped me out by defrosting chicken for dinner, emptying the dish washer, vacuumed up all the little kids dirty foot prints every where and helped me put Memphis's and Sawyer's room back together! I was actually able to get dinner on the table by 5:30! I don't think that I'd be able to do the stuff that I do with out him! So.... fun day, new friends and as always and awesome hubby!

Preparing! More to follow!

 

 

 

 

Happy 8th! Me and the love of my life!

I'm excited that this weeks blog hop fell right on my anniversary. The theme today was anything that makes you feel good ie: joke, person, scripture. No matter the theme though I would still be posting on how much I love my hubby! Not only is he an incredible husband he is also an amazing father! I am one of the lucky ones that married a man that prefers to be home with his family. Except hunting season when he thinks turkeys and deer are way more entertaining then me and the kiddo's! He doesn't lie and he doesn't curse. I'd say that he doesn't raise his voice but he is only human! I have some how conformed him into my ridiculous ways of cleaning as sometimes I sit back and see how he scrubs out the kitchen sink with comet cleaner after the dishes were done.I'm a little OCD but in the clean house kinda way! Even after a day of being at work in the hot sun and on the air boat all day doing his job he still comes home to play hide and seek with the kids and fly them around like a space ship!
This morning I woke up and walked to the kitchen automatically looking for some kind of card (he always leaves me a card). But, it wasn't there! For a second my heart sank, that is until I opened the cabinet to get my coffee cup for my morning coffee. There sat a card. A homemade card that told me how much he loved me and how much he appreciates me and how he is amazed at all that I do and yet can still keep a smile on my face.He wrote that he wished that this would be the year that he could do something amazing for our anniversary.
But we have found through the eight years of marriage and the nine years total of being together that some how we are always a little strapped. I am truly thankful for my wonderful husband and happy that he is an amazingly great provider. I don't need anything shiny, pretty, or expensive. All I want is him and yes he is the one thing in my life that makes me happy and feel good....along with my kids! Happy anniversary Brent! I love you!

Just because...

I haven't had much time to do any postings but was sad seeing the one that was last written.So, I am making myself smile! Here's Sawyer....must youngest!

Would've, Could've, Should've!

Blog Hop! As I mentioned before I have entered this blog hop through McKlincky.It's great fun and tons of people come and view your blog. Each week they have a "theme" and this was this weeks. Fill in the blanks! The theme was e-mailed to me and right under that e-mail I received an e-mail that a friend had just passed away and his funeral was yesterday. No, no, no this blog post isn't going to be terribly sad. But, I did a lot of thinking yesterday. I'm a stewer! (once again is that a word?) I sit on stuff and it consumes me. I think , I think, I think! Like everyone I am finding that as I am getting older more people are passing away. Whether it be family because they are aging as you are aging or friends. I'm only soon to be 35 yrs. old. I still feel 21 yrs. old! Anyways, that's not my point! Along with the e-mail about my friend I received this and it got me thinking "What would I do?" I'm obviously not really wanting to fill in the blanks since I haven't (don't much care for this one honestly!) but, I would love to tell you about my friend. It's kinda sad with a wee little bit happy.Not sure if some of you are aware of the fact that I wasn't always a stay at home mom. I used to be a Restaurant manager. Well technically the bar manager but you are over the entire restaurant to of course. But with my main focus being the bar you make sure where all your inventory (liquor) is going, take care of your bartenders, scheduling, ordering, doing inventory and making sure your "regulars" are happy! I worked between 60-70 hours a week! Anywho, Dave was a regular. When I met Dave he was surrounded by people all the time. He drank a TON! He was in and out of the bar restaurant all day everyday and didn't miss a beat. We would talk from time to time. When the restaurant was in between rush times I'd sit and talk with him about his day and eventually deeper talks about his life. Dave was about early to mid forty's in age and him and his family owned a timber company. They had a TON of money. People were always around him because he would always spring for the bill or they just plain old wanted something. As our "restaurant" friendship grew I learned that he was once married and he still loved her dearly (he actually never got divorced). I saw his Mom and dad on occasions when they'd come into eat after church on Sundays. He was an alcoholic and thankfully he never drove...ever! He had incredible cars that everyone drove for him. People flocked to him because if you remotely said that you wanted something then he would get it! He frequented strip clubs and occasionally a girl would come into our restaurant for lunch with him. It was all quite sad. If you know me then you know I'm very honest and blunt! He LOVED that in me...thankfully! I would ask him why, why did he do the things he did? Why would he spend time with the people he did if he new that all they wanted was for him to buy them things and pay the bill.He wasn't dumb by any means and he just told me he didn't care. If you really sat and talked to him you'd know that all he wanted was someone to love and he was a truly caring man that really would do anything for anyone. I'm sorry his life was cut short. When I found out that Brent I were going to have a baby I had told him and he did the funniest thing. He went to the Kroger's behind the restaurant and bought about $200 worth of groceries and brought them to me in the restaurant. He said the baby needed to eat! I want to add he must have bought about 10 jars of pickles too! He was always wanting to do for me and I would have to say NO! and explain that I didn't need him to do for me that others needed him to do for them. I would still have my afternoon conversations with him and sometimes not so nice ones when I was angry about the stupid stuff that he'd do. Brent and I and Memphis moved away about 3 1/2 years ago and we still stayed in touch through cards. I sent him a Christmas card every year and he did the same. This was huge by the way because he is so not the type of person to do this. He always wrote such great letters in the card to us updating how he was doing...whether I approved or not! Two years ago he wrote and told us that he had quit drinking cold turkey. I was a little un-believing at first but after I spoke with some old Co-workers of mine they as well said that he had quit. They also said that he looked amazingly great! He died just recently and they said that they thought it was a blood clot. Our friend Art found him on his couch. His funeral was yesterday...at 3pm. I watched the clock yesterday and waited for three o'clock. I felt a little strange and just kept thinking of all of our many talks. I was so excited that this man was getting his life together and now it was cut short. His birthday is Nov. 11th. I had just bought him his birthday card that I of course send to him every year...still! He also once told me that I was the only person that ever remembered his birthday that is besides his folks. So even though we moved I just couldn't stop remembering.So I didn't feel much like doing the "fill in the blank" blog hop theme this week. Actually it's not something that I even remotely would want to do even if I wasn't sad today. I want to treasure what God has given me right here and now! An incredible husband, great children, a wonderful family and amazing friends and another day and with forgiveness for my sins. Also, God has given me a chance to know this man...David Norwood! I had his phone number and was thinking about him the other day. I would've called him if I had the time, I could've called him if I made the time, I should've called him now I can't!

You just found out you have one week to live. The first person you call is _________________ and say __________________. Immediately after hanging up the phone, you leave the doctors office and before heading home you go to _________________ so you can ____________________.

You gather your family at home that night and say _______________________ then all of you together _____________________.

You book a three day trip to three different places because you've always wanted to _________________, _________________ and _________________. On the way back from your trip you stop off at ________________________ to _________________ because you've been meaning to for a long time.

For two more days you spend your time reading _________________, writing _____________, and _______________________. You make sure you _________________, _________________ and _________________... three things you know you should have taken care of but have been putting off.

The final day is too personal to write about but you wonder to yourself: why did I have to get a death notice before I finally did all those things this week?

The reason I'll probably keeping putting off all those things is ___________________________ but __________________________.


Special thanks to Shoplet.com-Purell Hand Sanitizers for sponsoring this blog hop.

Memphis's 4th Birthday party!

Well technically Memphis doesn't turn four until Tuesday so I will save my tears for then. But, we were able to drive back to Tallahassee and celebrate Memphis turning four with all our friends. It was great seeing everyone and Memphis has such a love for all of his friends. It makes me sad that we aren't near them anymore but happy that we don't have to drive real far if we are having absolute friend with drawls! I'm a lucky girl to have such great friends. They really helped us out with this party! My friend Tammy made Memphis's cake this year and it was amazing! I talked like she had a choice...Ha! Ha! I think our conversation went something like this. Me...."Hey, watcha doing next week?" Tammy...."Oh! nothing I think." Me..."Will you make Memphis's birthday cake and Oh! check your inbox I e-mailed you a photo of Bob the Blob!" She is truly amazing! Her children weren't feeling that great and she just got home recently from a long trip to Tennessee for a MOPS convention but still made our cake! YAY! US! And YAY! For friends like her!

We all had a really great time eating pizza and playing games. Tammy's cake was yummy of course!

Our friend Amanda (Madison her daughter) got Memphis tickets to the Dinosaur exhibit at the Hands on Mary Brogan Museum downtown. So after loading all of our stuff a bunch of us headed to the Museum to see the Dinosaurs and play with all their hands on craziness! Thank you Amanda we loved it and it made Memphis's day!

I just want to add this message for my friends! Thank you for all of your help and being there for us! I honestly don't know what we'd do without having friends like you in our lives. You love us unconditionally, pray for us, take care of our needs as friends can do and make us laugh! I hope that anyone that reads this has the chance to have friends like this in their lives