A blast in Ballwin!

I just have to say what a wonderful community we live in!! Every year the city of Ballwin has it's big celebration, Ballwin Days. We go every year! Gosh, Mike and I have been going to it since we were in highschool. Good times, Good memories. Now we look forward to taking the kids and having fun times with them. We always see a ton of friends we know there. Many times we run into people from our past, so we always look forward to who we may encounter this year! We went last evening for just a couple hours. You can drop quite a bit of money in such a short time, so we told the kids 'ONE RIDE" only. Usually we ride every ride, but since we are going to Disney in a couple weeks, we thought we'd take it easy. Chase's favorite ride there is the scrambler. Last yr I rode it with him......I won't be riding it again....almost tossed my cookies. I loved that ride when I was younger too, times change! Mike and Chase rode it and I got the pleasure of watching them on it. What precious memories I get of their excited faces and laughter while swirlling around! Brooke's one ride was less robust....the choo-choo train. She was very sweet to watch as she rode in the caboose-sp? She blew me kisses each time she rode past me:) After the rides we talked to some friends then got a snowcone and cotton candy, ready to set out our blanket to watch the fireworks. They were great!! We were right under them, we even had shrapnal-sp falling on us! It was cool out with an awesome breeze, stars in the sky and the 4 of us lying on a blanket watching fireworks. Good times, even better memories!! This morning we walked up to our entrance of our subdivision and met some of our neighbors for the annual Parade! There were lots of floats, cars, bands, cheerleaders, candy and firetrucks!! We really do live in a nice city that cares about families and friends having fun times together!

did you know

We took Spanky to the vet for his ongoing foot saga yesterday. He is maintaining his weight at 17 pounds, but he still has bad allergies and licks his feet. I guess the goals, since he is almost 14years old, will be to keep him happy and frisky; keep his weight up; minimize his licking; and keep infections away. Well, his infections are cleared up, but he has a fungal infection from the antibiotics on his paws now. Kinda like when we women take an antibiotic and then get a lovely yeast infection. Well, the vet gave me a script for a med and I looked at him and said" do I get this filled at Walgreens or something??" Yes, he replied. (Okay, did anyone else know that you could get your DOGS prescriptions filled at walgreens too???) We usually get all his meds right from the vets office.... I haven't dropped it off yet to get filled. I am a little scared to, because I know insurance won't be stepping in and picking up most of the tab, like on our scripts!!! I'll let you know the final bill when I'm brave enough to do it!

Tea Party

Brooke had a tea party the other day at my mom and dads house. My mom even got out her real china tea cups from her collection and they filled teapots with hot chocolate and had cheez-its on the little pretty saucers. Chase was there too and even enjoyed himself too! Well, today Brooke wanted to set up another tea party here for me and her and Chase and Dillon too. Dillon is Chase's great friend who also lives down the street, so he's here all the time ( we love it because he is a great kid). Anyway, Brooke LOVES him and calls him her husband all the time and talks about how she is going to marry him, everyday!! She picked out a special cup for him and we had strawberries and blueberries on our plates. After pouring the "tea" we called the boys to our special event. They were great about it and really enjoyed it. Brooke started to get bossy with Dillon so I told her that Dillon is our guest, you can't boss him around. Well, she looked at me quickly and declared,"uh-uHHH, he's not my guest....he's MY HUSBAND, so I can boss him if I want". OH.....MY.....how I dread the teen years:)

Living life to it's "fullest"

Mike and I are taking the kids to Florida in less than a month now. I have started and restarted my diet countless times. Well, today I declared to Mike, "I guess I'm going to Florida FAT!!!" He replied without hesitation ,"Hey, We're just living life to it's fullest" to which I answered," yeah, my elastic in my underwear is!!" We got a good laugh, but I guess you had to be there:)

Get your motor runnin........

Mike bought a scooter last year from our neighbors garage sale. It is a blast!! We rode it tons last year, Mike even rode it up to the gas station once, until it got a flat. We tried everything to get air back in the tire, but no luck. He finally took it to a local bike shop this week and they fixed it, so we're back in business!! We like it so much because it gives us a chance to act like kids on it. All their stuff has weight limits, but this is made for us adults. Brooke and Chase have a little 4 wheeler they can ride. Here's some pics from Mike and Brooke having fun on the driveway today on their 'hogs'.

Brooke's worst day

So, yesterday was probably Brooke's worst day of life so far, poor baby. She went for her 4-5 yr check up for school and had to get (Kelli, this is a good time for you to look away) FIVE SHOTS!!!! I held her on my lap while a nurse on either side of her proceeded to give her shots at the same time to I guess lessen the torture time. She SCREAMED"I JUST WANT TO LEAVE THIS PLACE"! Poor baby, I think we will both remember that moment forever. I remember when I was young, having to get 4 shots in my butt of all places, so I was quick to share that story with her, to let her know I felt her pain. They gave her 2 LARGE lolipops (not the usual dumdums) for being soooo brave. She shared one with Chase. We went to Longview park to play and pet the horses straight from the dr. and then of course topped off the afternoon with a trip to McDonalds.....Chicken nuggets make everything better, don't they. Now, a day later, she is frantic about taking all the bandaids off!!! At least she doesn't need to get anymore shots for a few years now....Praise the Lord! Also, PTL for sparkle bandaids!

Gorgeous Day!

It is an AWESOME day out today. Sunny and only 80*. My sister,Kathy came over for a few hours to work on arts and crafts for VBS. Man is she talented and crafty!! My friend and Chiropractor, Kristy also came over to adjust me since I was having terrible migranes all weekend. If you've never tried a chiro, you should. She does a deep tissue massage for approx 20 minutes and then adjusts my back , neck, and sinusus! I feel all tingly after she's done....awesome! If you live in the St.L area (sorry Becke') she comes to your house!!! Awesome again. Anyway, the kids have had 3 friends each over part of the day, which wasn't even planned. Sometimes those kind of days are the best. My chiro, Kristy brought her daughter to play while she worked on me, then Chase's friend Cooper came over and his sister came along and stayed to play with Brooke. The girls are wearing dresses and heels right now pretending they are Gabriella and Sharpay.....soooooo cute!! Oh then Dillon, Chase's sweet neighborhood friend came up. He really is a great kid!! Which is good, because Brooke always says she is going to marry him, "mom, my husband is here"!! I'll have to keep my eye on that:)
The windows are once again open and the cool breeze is blowing in......nice for the AC bill! Hope everyone is having a great day too!!

These Things I Know

I turned 40 this past March, and so I guess it's a "normal" time to reflect on one's life so far. Well, these things I know.......
I have had a blessed life since day one. In looking back over the years, I see that God's prescence has ALWAYS been in my life.....even before I really knew it. The people placed into my life as family, friends, coworkers..."FELLOW BLOG READERS, THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES IN LIFE...THAT'S THE LORD'S HAND MOVING IN YOUR LIFE. okay, sorry back to the entry. Yesterday at church our pastor addressed all of the MY SPACERS and FACEBOOKERs. I am a blogger so I took it to heart. Anyway, he challenged us to use our blogs for good (no gossip etc) and to present ourselves as the Christians we are. Use our site for good. So many of my fellow bloggers are Christians, and amen girls, you rock at this!!! Why is it sooo easy to talk about movies we've seen and everything else, but we (I) clam up when it comes to what REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE........JESUS, AND HAVING A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. This thing I know.....we are here to learn how to love Him. We are here to learn how to love others, like He loves us. Life can be soooooo hard at times, NO ONE IS IMMUNE TO IT, and just because you are a Christian doesn't mean life won't be hard. It just means He will be there to carry you through the dark times, over the mountain.
One thing I DON'T KNOW: how do you make it through the hard times in life WITHOUT HIM?!

dinner on the deck

Tonight was beautiful out so we cooked some yummy steak (it's adobe sirloin steak from Trader Joes) on the grill and ate on the deck as a family. The kids set the table for me and even made placecards for each of us! We enjoyed a great meal, great weather and great family time! We played some games while eating. The one where each person gives a clue of something and the answer has two words, both words must start with the same letter. (what is the name of the famous mouse at disney....Mickey Mouse). Chase had some really creative ones, and Brooke even did a good job! Fun times together!! We eat as a family every night, but there's something special about eating outside. It's also rare that it's just us in the evening. We often have all our neighbors over, which is great, our neighbors are awesome, but it is nice to just be with the family sometimes too:)

Fling vs. crazy

Okay Kelli, here goes.....
Things I'd like to fling:
--Spanky pooping on my rug when we are gone or don't take him out quick enough.
--Brooke's constant whining
--That the moment I sit down at the computer EVERYONE needs my attention (can I have just 5 minutes????)
--Chase not thinking before he asks questions sometimes.
--The constant arguing of my children (when does school start?)
--Clutter
--20 pounds of body fat and flab
Things I'm crazy about:
--I really do love my kids even though I want to fling their bad habbits!
--Hugo diet cokes from McDonalds - they ARE the fizziest!
--Driving with the sunroof open and the music LOUD- I love all kinds of different music, from 80's , Christian, Hard rock....
--Chocolate covered strawberries
--Mike's strong arms
--Chase's caring nature and how he likes me to run my fingers through his hair before bed
--Brooke's nose rubs and whispers in my ear before bed

Blah....

Is it the heat; the fact that I worked in the yard in the heat for 5 hours yesterday; the fact that it's summer and the kids are constantly at eachother ( can they not work ANYTHING out on their own?); is it that I gave a ginormous pile of laundry sitting in the hall and in my bedroom and I don't feel like doing it; is it that I just wrote out hundreds of dollars worth of bills; is it that I am STILL OVERWEIGHT and leaving for Florida in less than 6 weeks and just ate cookies; is it the fact that I have been to the vet and doctor too many times in the past 2 months and just realized I forgot to take Brooke in for her 4 year old physical ( she'll be 5 in september). I just can't put my finger on it.....but I feel BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am also thinking of returning to Weight Watchers tomorrow. BLAH!

Please Pray

I worked the night shift last night in the nursery with a nursery tech that I don't really know that well. She is fairly new to the hospital. She was very emotional, so we began to talk and she shared that her son had talked about killing himself the night before. He is 22 yrs old and his name is Rickie................please lift him up in prayer as much as you can the next couple of weeks. He is batteling drug use among other things. She shared that he really is a great kid, who just feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. Pray that he may feel the prescence of the Lord with him at this time and that God only wants good things for his life. I can't help but think of my own son.....years down the line.....I pray that he never feels such overwhelming circumstances and that he too knows that God is with him .....EMANUEL! Let us pray for ALL of our children daily!!!

Spanky update

We went to the vet today for a recheck of Spanky's weight and his feet infections. He weighs 17 pounds!!!!!! Just nine days ago he was only 11 pounds and honestly,I thought he was on death's doorstep. He is back to normal now.....barking at everything, begging for food, wanting to go outside, even getting into the bathrooms to eat toilet paper!!! I tell you, this close call has made me "appreciate his annoying habbits" His feet look soooooo much better too. I love my baby and thank the Lord for such awesome improvements so quickly!!

OOPS!

The fabulous place we went to last night was actually called INCREDIBLE PIZZA (in case you want to check it out).

GREAT!! American Pizza place

Tonight the kids and I went to my nephew Andrew's 11th birthday party at the Great American Pizza Place. Have you all been there before?? It's a pretty cool place. It makes the Chuckster look like "cheese" (okay, that was a poor shot at humor) Anyway, there's a huge buffet for dinner, a go cart track, bumper cars, tons of games and a mini bowling alley.....complete with CHRISTIAN rock music videos on flat screens!!!! Chase's fav was the go Karts and Brooke's was the bowling! The kids collect tickets from the games like at CC and can cash them in for prizes. Brooke got a gold slinky for only 80 tickets and Chase got a shot glass-sized container of goo and 3 tatoos all for the "low" price of 135 tickets!! Oh well, it was a great evening. I have to say, tonight actually felt like a summer night. Remember when you were young, that feeling of no worrries. It was a week night, we were out past our bedtime, we had the windows down,the sunroof wide open and the warm summer breeze felt AWESOME. (YES, the music was loud too). Good times!!

Tennis Lesson #1

Today, after running a few errands, I FINALLY did something with the kids, that I've been talking about since last summer!! We went to Vlassis park and I gave the kids their first of hopefully many, tennis lessons. For those of you who don't know....I was on the tennis team in highschool. My friends and I played tennis almost daily, sometimes multiple times a day growing up. We also took lessons at the club, played on the innerclub team (which means we went as a team representing Forest Hills country club, and played the other clubs in the area). Kind of a cool experience as a teen! Anyway, last summer I hit the ball against the house on the driveway, but most of the balls went over the house, there just wasn't enough room to hit. I want to get back into it sooo bad - maybe I could lose the unwanted weight that way - doing something I love. So there sprang the idea of teaching the kids. It really was a fun time with them. Brooke wore her little tennis dress. They both have their own littly raquets that we bought last yr, so we were ready! I tried to teach them some very basic skills........we just ended up having fun hitting the ball over the net etc. They actually got hot and tired BEFORE ME!!!!WOW!! My nephew, Andrew, and my sister, Kathy joined us near the end, so A and Chase had some fun hitting the ball to eachother (they did pretty good!!!) After about an hour, we played on the playground there at the park. It was again, hopefully the first of many tennis outings this summer!!