Howard's Donut Buzz

John's been to Howard's Donuts this morning & the kids are playing Hide & Seek (in the house b/c it's freezing outside) and the sugar buzz has definitely kicked in, if you value your sanity do NOT come over right now!

At the Movies

Yesterday we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D, the kids gave it a thumbs up! I took Rae, Rob, & Taryn and we also invited Miss Angela, Kaitlyn, & Zachary to go with us. The boys rode with me & the girls rode with Miss Angela, they thought that was pretty cool. We were pretty hilarious trying to juggle all of our snacks & booster seats for Rob & Zachary. Rae, Rob, & John-Robert chose sweet tarts & sodas...I got Reese's pieces & a Diet Coke- I have to think that $30 bucks for that is beyond ridiculous, but that's going to the movies.

Taryn, Rae, & Kaitlyn sat in the three chairs in front of us, they are getting to be soooo grown up! They really thought they were big stuff!

Here are our two handsome boys Zachary & John-Robert... they were super good during the movie, I think John-Robert only got up to dance once (usually it's any time during the show that he likes the music!). John-Rob said he didn't want any popcorn but then he kept swiping some from Zachary & Zachary very patiently explained to John-Robert that you're not supposed to take someone else's popcorn unless they have "offered" it to you , so I had John-Rob offer Zachary some of his candy & all was well.

Happy Anniversary Stacy & Dave

Happy Anniversary Stacy & Dave!!! I guess if I were a REALLY good sister-in-law I would know how many years they have been married, but I don't. I did however very happily invite my niece to spend the night & go to the movies with us! :)

Samuel Randall Keasler

This is a picture of my grandpa Samuel Randall Keasler. My Dad emailed a bunch of our family members old pictures he has been scanning a month or so ago, I really like this one.

Crane Folding Party

Yesterday afternoon we had a crane folding party at my Mom's house. We're folding 1,000 cranes for Sam & Ali's wedding, 1,000 cranes made by your family & friends = good luck. Ali's also going to use some of the cranes in the centerpieces for the tables so actually we need 1,000 plus. I was the "instructor" see all of the serious pupils doing their bestest. :)

The whole crew from left to right & their cranes... please forgive my spelling... Betsy, Christine, Ali, Brenda, Elizabeth, Trisha, Jessica, & Amanda
Ali, Mom, & I

Some of our beautiful cranes & my super cute wine glass (it says hip chicks do wine) that my Aunt Susan sent to me, my Mom, Ali, & Brenda- thanks Aunt Susan! Drink of the afternoon was champagne with St. Germain elderflower liquer added to it, yum!

And this is what happens when origami & champagne mix, poor deformed cranes... actually I truly believe that crane was all in one piece when someone finished it, I think it just slowly came apart.

As the instructor it was very interesting to observe & work with different learning "styles." Someone said they were surprised that it wasn't as hard as they thought it was going to be and someone else said they were surprised that they weren't better at it. We only managed to crank out about 150, Aunt Susan sent us a few hundred and my Mom has done a ton of them, we only have another 400 or so to go... volunteers anyone?

Happy 21st B-day Samantha!

Today is my niece Samantha's 21st birthday, freak out!! I'm freaking out that is, she isn't...I texted her around lunch time & she said she was having margaritas- sounds like fun to me. We love you girl, happy, happy birthday!!!

What I'm Doing This Weekend

So... looks like what I'm doing this weekend is going to see Monsters vs. Aliens, comes out on Friday & John-Rob is "dying" to see it!

Rock Band Finals

Our Rock Band "band" is named Afflicted Sixx and we played in a RockBand contest down in Tunica @ Harrah's casino this past weekend. John played guitar, Dave played bass, I played the drums, & Jeremy sang. We played the song PDA by Interpol & did great! We got 2nd place and play in the "finals" on April 4th. If we win the finals on April 4th I think we each win $500 and airfare & accomodations to the next round of the competition in New Orleans. Stacy, our band manager :), was talking with the DJs from 98.1 doing some "PR" so we didn't get any pictures of us playing but these are a few I snapped of the stage & one of the DJs after we played our song. I'll try & remember to ask her to take some pics of us playing on April 4th. I did talk a little with one of the guys from the radio station & remind him that this year was the 20th year anniversary of the release of Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood album and I also said they need to play more Crue on their radio station, especially from their new album. So... I did my part for the boys and it was a fun time. It was really funny because I've never had people want to shake my hand before after I've done something & there was this one guy in particular who shook my hand after every song we played, which was very nice but also pretty hilarious folks, seriously hilarious. :)
Chris Jarman DJ for 98.1 the max radio station

Thanks Dr. G!

Thanks for the Shamu cookies Dr. G.! Dr. G. & her family have just gotten home from a "vacation" to see the Mouse and Shamu. She remembered that my kids adore Shamu and very thoughtfully brought them home some super cool, super huge, Shamu cookies. Emma-Rae has blue lips now, lol! The kids say thank you Dr. G!

Touch N Brush

John-Rob was just downstairs watching SpongeBob & comes barreling up the stairs shouting I want Touch N Brush! We have to get Touch N Brush toothpaste! So... I google it and there it is, an automatic toothpaste dispenser. Too funny, if you're interested in seeing the commercial that got a 5 year old so wound up click on the link below.

https://www.buytouchnbrush.com/?MID=539359

Bath Time

Bath time for puppy. He looks pretty cute here but y'all have no earthly idea how badly he stinks! Miss Krystle gives the BEST baths ever, if she can't make this crazy puppy smell better it can't be done!

Ahh yes.... a wet shih tzu = a drowned rat

Ahhh.... life is good, me & Shamu are just chillin'

P.S. My name is now Nikki Sixx- see the resemblance, lots of black spikey hair, can't see my eyes

Just Trying to Watch My Show

Today has been the longest day ever! John-Robert has been really sick all day, Emma-Rae has been really bored all day - not a good combination. I'm dying to watch the episode of Ghost Whisperer that is on the DVR from 7 p.m. tonight, it's supposed to be an awesome episode! I couldn't watch it at 7 because I promised John-Robert I would watch Madagascar 2 with him and now... I can't watch it because it's time to practice Rock Band with John, Dave, & Jeremy. Yes, you read that correctly "practice" Rock Band, we're going to play in a contest down in Tunica @ the end of the month. Maybe we won't practice too late and I'll watch it when we're done. I have to go to a seminar for work tomorrow from 1-7 p.m. so I probably won't be able to squeeze it in tomorrow. Oh well, there are always worse things. Gotta go!

Brush Your Cats Teeth

Funny video about brushing your cats teeth, if you've ever given it a try you will certainly be able to relate!

Grand Cayman Island

February 20th- March 2nd we were having a ball on Grand Cayman Island. My sister-in-law Stacy has friends who own a beautiful villa on Seven Mile Beach and they offered it to her to celebrate her 40th birthday. John & Dave (Stacy's hubby) also have February birthdays so we planned a celebration trip- John & I, Stacy & Dave & their friends Bobby & Susan. We had a wonderful time & now we have two new Birmingham friends in Bobby & Susan-what a great couple! Would you believe me if I told you that we got snowed in in the Cayman Islands and our original flight home was cancelled? It was... Memphis had the most snow it's had in 8 or 9 years, the kids sure enjoyed it. The trip was absoultely wonderful, we all want to go back & take the kids next time. Kind of hard to believe but I didn't take a million pictures, apparently I take more pictures when the kids are around... but here's a few I'd like to share. There is a link at the end of this post to something Susan put together on smilebox, it has a TON of pictures from our vacation on there- please go and check it out, it's great!



John & I standing in front of a bronze sculpture by Guy Harvey in Georgetown.


Beautiful Cayman sunset view from our balcony.



View of the pool from the side balcony

John & Dave heading down to go snorkeling. The guys went snorkeling a few times everyday and saw more right off the beach in front of the villa than they did on any of the scuba dives they did. They saw lobster, stingray, barracuda, turtle, & of course beautiful fish, coral, & conch. Boy have we got a story about conch. Susan's link has a bunch of pictures of their snorkeling & scuba adventures.


John, Dave, Susan, & Bobby coming back in from snorkeling. Yup... Stacy & I declined their invitation to join them & relaxed on the beach. It was nice getting some quiet time to talk with her, usually we're keeping up with kids or we're on the phone & mine are yelling in the background. I love ya girl!


Mr. Turtle, I took several pictures of him because I kept missing him stick his head out of the water. We went to this turtle place that was like an under funded SeaWorld but was also a turtle farm... it was kind of weird. They had this (well it looked cool) area where you could snorkel with fish but when I started swimming out there was all of this really gross algae everywhere & I kept thinking about that water getting in my ears & getting an earache so I went back to relax with the girls. They guys snorkeled around & said they saw massive amounts of fish, sounded like they enjoyed themselves.

These are the tarpon (a type of fish), see their eyes glowing. Dave made us a reservation at this nice restaurant called the Wharf where they feed the tarpon every night at 9 p.m. The video below is of a guy feeding the fish, it's wild. As soon as they finished feeding them the majority of the tarpon left, they aren't contained or anything they just swam back out to sea.

Stacy, Dave, & I celebrating Mardi Gras @ the Kaibo Yacht Club. Yes, I had too much to drink- enough said.

Susan & Bobby celebrating @ Kaibo too!

John & I in "Hell." Hell is only as big as a minute but... they do have a post office so you can send everyone postcards with the Hell postmark.

This is the link to check out more of our vacation pictures. Thanks Susan for putting this together it's really cute!

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4f4445304d6a45774d6e77784e7a59774e6a63314d773d3d0d0a&sb=1

Happy Birthday Doc!

Tuesday was Doc's 50th birthday. We surprised him by decorating his office with balloons & streamers (I forgot to take pictures). We were all really crossing our fingers that he didn't pull one of those get to work at 5 a.m. things and ruin our surprise. I really wish I would have taken pictures of his office because one of the balloons floating around his office set the alarm off around midnight and he got a phone call at home from the alarm company, what a birthday! We also got him an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (cookies & cream- yum!). We all had a nice time even though I forgot to get paper plates & our only "animal free" knife disappeared. Imagine cutting a barely thawed ice cream cake with one of those free spatulas from the Olive Garden... and some of the girls had the nerve to ask for a little piece! Just kidding ladies, you know I'll always do what I can for you. :)

While you're watching the video you'll notice a sneaky little dog running into the room- that's our girl Bowser- if something is going on she's going to be right there in the middle of it. :)

Now all that this post is missing is a picture of Mattie Roger's tooth. One of our patients, a boxer named Mattie, decided to attack the Terminix man's tire & damage one of her teeth so badly that Doc, Dr. Godfrey, Bonnie, Andrew, & I stayed late at work to fix her up. I'd say Doc had a pretty eventful 50th.

Meet our New Puppy!

Meet our new puppy! His name is... well, we don't really know what his name is just yet. He's an 11 week old Shih-Tzu puppy given to us by John's cousin MaryBeth. Thanks girl! The kids adore him, Gigi is having a ball with him, he's an angel when I take him to work everyday, Kaygen (our lab) is currently unimpressed- we're working on him.

Our new buddy on the hour & a half ride home from Dyersburg.

On the way home we were taking pictures with John's phone & sending them to people- we got a lot of suggestions for names that way.

Puppy is hard at work helping Emma-Rae type her story about getting a new puppy.

This is Mr. LazyBones chillin' in my office at work. I know he's got a pink blanket & flowery bed...those belong to Gigi, Dr. Godfrey says I need to get him a camo bed up there pronto. He doesn't seem to mind the flowers too much.

Current Suggestions for his name:

1. Nikki Sixx

2. Motley

3. Gizmo

4. Edward (yes from Twilight) or Eddy

5. Shamu

6. King Fluffington

7. Snoopy

8. Pluto

9. Chipper

10. Rowdy

11. Fido

12. Mickey (he really does have a hidden Mickey on his belly!)

13. Zoidberg

14. Kaibo

15. Conch

Maybe I'll just post a poll

Spring Break Blues

The kiddos have Spring Break this week. Tuesday the temperature was 80 something, now- not so much. The temperature has dropped, it's rained, & the backyard looks like a swamp...

John-Rob has a stomach virus (notice the lack of sheets on the bed)

And Rae is stuck helping Mama with the laundry while watching a Ghost Whisperer marathon courtesy of the DVR.

Bottom line is... we have to find something fun to do this weekend. :)