Do you remember the time...

I remember when my sister and I were watching MTV, that very first night the Thriller music video was on. They played it over and over again, and we tried to learn all the moves!!! It really was a big deal back then, for all you young thangs that don't know. It was the talk of the town. I actually loved growing up in the
80's. I think it had some of the best music, to this day!! Yes, I still get my 80s music fix from my tv, but now it is from the satellite tv station! I miss the old music videos. We spent many hours just watching MTV, when they ACTUALLY showed music videos! Anyway, I miss the old Michael Jackson, and consider it a big loss in this world that he is gone. You can pop out my music player and listen to some of his best songs, if you want. Or not:) Anyway, just thought his death was blog worthy.

Sweet playmates

My friend Kelli is out of town, with her mom on an amazing journey to see where her grandparents started a missionary, in the Turks islands. Today, we have her oldest kids, Sloan and Tia over to play. The kids are loving having them over to play. I thought Kelli would enjoy "seeing" her sweeties today, so wanted to post some pics of them playing today. Hope everyone is staying cool today....it is gonna be 100 degrees today!!!

Weekend recap

Happy belated Father's Day to all the fathers in our lives!! You are all such wonderful men, and I hope you enjoyed your special day doing whatever makes you happy!! The dad in this house, had a full weekend!! Chase had a game friday night, and got the game ball, for being hit 2 times with wild pitches, one right in the left kidney....and he took them like a man:) He also had a game saturday afternoon. Mike is one of the assistant coaches, so he got to spend time doing one of his favorite things, being on a ball field. As many of you know, he got to play college ball all four years, and was really really good. I have spent many a days sitting on bleachers, watching him play in HS and college, then as we have aged, he switched to softball. Now he coaches. Sunday after church, we headed to Six Flags for the day. It was pretty hot, but we had a great time. Chase and Mike were brave and rode the Batman rollercoaster and Evil kinevil.....Brooke and I watched proudly:) We all enjoyed the log flume a few times, and thunder river the best, as they cooled us down!!! Hope you all had a great weekend. What did you all do to celebrate the dad in your house???

Rainy day fun

Today, it POURED down rain!! So the kids and I decided to make use of a coupon that Chase received from school. It allows each of us to bowl one free game a day, if we like, the whole summer. I love doing things when there are no crowds, so this was such fun, as we were 3 of about 20 ppl there! We only had to pay for shoe rental! We bowled for about an hour and then decided to go to Burger King for lunch. Our lunch actually cost more than the bowling. After we ate the kids played outside (yes the rain stopped) on the slides and stuff at BK. Then we were off to Joanns to look for Father's day items that we need to complete our gifts. We really had a good day filled with laughter and low stress!! We will definately take advantage of the free bowling again soon, and often, this summer!!

Refreshed

I got back last evening from our church's annual, womens' retreat. I have to say, this yearly getaway, although very short, is such a charge to my spiritual, emotional, physical, mental battery!! The weekend starts off with the ride down with my sister, Kathy. We get to share a room together down there also and it is nice to remminis(sp) on childhood memories. We always have a guest speaker, sing songs of worship, eat, laugh, craft, pray, laugh some more and do whatever we want....whenever we want. The things i chose to do were all the above and, walk around the lake there on the property, which had a dock and paddle boats. I also painted my nails while sitting outside listening to nature, sat in the sun, read the paper in bed, and all without worrying about who needed my attention. Our speaker, whom is also a fellow church member, shared her soul with us, and showed us how God was with her as she walked through breast cancer, and the cancer and ultimate death of her 20yr old son. Puts so much into perspective. We ALL need to be reminded of God's faithfulness to us. He IS there with us at all times, and has a plan for each of our lives, even though, at times we wonder why we must endure some of the challenges in life we face. I hope that you all get a chance each yr, in some small way, to escape it all and find some quiet time to get in touch with your soul and be reminded of what is truly important in this life. Hope you had a great weekend.

mishmash Thursday thoughts

I worked all night last night and just woke up from sleeping for a little while. My parents so wonderfuly took the kids for me, so that I could get some much needed sleep. They are at the movie right now, so I am just looking at blogs. My brain function isn't the best and I have a headache, so thought I would just list a few things on my mind today....
~I love to crawl into my bed after working all night, knowing I can just sleep.....ahh, what a good feeling (even though the quality of said sleep is not the best)
~We bundled, and switched to Directv, so now have a DVR for the first time ever. WOW how cool is that!!!! WHO invented that, you can pause tv while watching it and record it. Just too much for the mind to handle!! I know, all the rest of you have had DVRs or TIVO for yrs, but this is new stuff for us!! LOVE IT
~I get to go on my yearly woman's retreat tomorrow. We only stay away for a day and a half, but I get to room with my sister and have some girl time with her, like the good ole days!! It is fun to take care of only yourself for a change, although I am scared, cause last yr, I endede up sick in my bed the whole retreat, and am afraid that history will repeat itself......pray for me please.
~Brooke cried yesterday before I went to work. She didn't want me to go to work again!! I am part time now, so have to work 2 twelve hr shifts in a row on my weekend and that is just too much time away!! I told her, I would mainly be gone just while she sleeped this time. How sweet, but now am feeling guilty for leaving on my retreat tomorrow too. Oh well.
~Chase has been saving up for an electric guitar and is over half way there. I am so proud of him. This is the boy who can't usually stand to have money burning a whole in his pocket, and MUST go to Target anytime he gets money to buy something! He takes regular guitar lessons now, and is getting really great at it!! How I would love to be able to pick up an instrument and just play......
~I am LOVING our new computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~I bought my first Itunes card at target last week to download some songs to my ipod for when I walk. I haven't done it yet, but am excited to do it for the first time.
~I ate a big ole mexican smashed potatoe for "dinner" last night at 1am at work. Man, food tastes soo good at that hour. Your stomach releases something when you are up late that makes you sooooooo hungry. NOT good for the diet. But I don't eat much the day following a night shift.
~Mike's work has been very busy, so much in fact that they have had to turn work away this week.....thank you Lord for your faithfullness to us!!
~I don't know how Mike does it, working out in the heat alllllll day long, everyday in the summer. He goes through 3 and 4 shirts a day from sweat!! He really has a physically challenging job, and I appreciate how hard he works for us, his family:)
~Chase got a tv back in his room. (all you moms out there, release your breath now) Don't worry, we are setting the parental controls and limiting the times to watch....it is kinda fun to watch Chase and Brooke snuggle together back on his bed and watch together. It is a go for the summertime, but we will re eval after that:)
~Brooke had her sleepover with Grandma D 2 days ago.....fun, fun, fun was had!!! She brought her whole room over with her, and they had a tea party with real china and hot cocoa, among other things:)
~I still really miss Spanky:(
~I really love Dewey, he is such a good (big)boy!!! we are trusting him more and more outside without a leash!! He listens very well!! I find that he is doing some things that I thought was very unique to Spanky...He loves to get up on the back of the couch and sit and sleep just like Spanky. He also whines like Spanky sometimes. He also sleeps with me if I am sick or worked nights, which is something I really missed about Spanky. He is a big sweetie!!!!!!!
~I have no idea how long this post is, how boring it is, or even what I am typing at this point, being short on sleep. So I am off to that glorious place....McDonalds for my daily fix before the kids return. I hope and pray I am not a crabby mom and wife tonight!!!! Bye, and have a good day all!!

The long awaited.........

Last night was finally, Brooke's much anticipated, dance recital! It was kinda crazy, but fun. All the moms pretty much missed out on the whole show because we had to stay and help the girls get dressed and then WAIT for our turn in a small, crowded room. It was nice however, that they had a big movie screen showing the performance that was going on in the big auditorium. They even had good speakers in the room, so the music was nice and loud. As a mom, you are glad to be there with your daughter before she takes the stage, but it's kind of ironic that the men are watching the entire show live.....and they could care less, except of course to watch THEIR baby girl:) oh well, it was an experience!! A friend and myself kept saying all night, "HOW do the parents that do the beauty pagents with their little girls do this time and time again" and HOW do the little girls endure all that! YIKES. Anyway, Brooke did great!!!! Her first dance, she was the only one that remembered the whole routine and did great:) The second routine, was her favorite. Banana Smoothie, we walked around the house singing "cut up a banana, put it in the blender and shake it all up" almost the whole week, it was so embeded in our brains! I was soooo proud of my little girl, she really shined up there and dance is her element, for sure!! Grandma and Grandpa D came to watch her and even brought her some cograts flowers....she LOVED them!

Aint she a beaut?!

Drum roll please............Mike and I are the PROUD owners of a new computer!! After a year of debate, back and forth on whether to bite the bullet and buy a new computer, we FINALLY did it!!! We have endured day after day of frustration, as the old computer shut down unexpectedly, anytime it felt. There was no rhyme or reason to WHY this happened. We considered it a good day when it only shut down 5 times, sad. We HAVE already had issues with the new computer. This is actually our SECOND monitor. After only 2 hours the first one went crazy. WHY don't things work??? Poor Mike had to box everything back up and race back to Sams (which closed in 30minutes) to exchange it. Today was spent getting the internet set up. I have to say I AM still waiting for something to go wrong.......I pray it never does,but our past experiences are not good ones, and it will take us time to trust again. Yikes, sounds like a relationship gone bad, and I guess, you could say it was. We rely on our computers like we rely on our cars. Anyway. Sorry to go on and on.. Here is a pic of our new addition to the family:)

*** UPDATE. She's been running just fine all day long, and even goes into powersave mode all by herself!! We are so proud:)

Old fashioned summer fun

Today was a beautiful day, and it felt like summer break had finally arrived! We decided to get the sprinkler out and have some good ole fasioned summertime fun! This was Dewey's first sprinkler experience and he LOVED it!! He ran all around, and through it and was going in and out of all the bushes like a wild man. The kids had a blast getting eachother wet and I enjoyed sitting in the sun. We also had a picnic lunch on the driveway. Fun times!!