Life with Rae & Rob

Old Fashioned Popcorn Party

2011-06-29T18:23:00.003-05:00

Last time I was at the grocery store I picked up some old fashion popcorn kernels instead of the microwave popcorn we usually buy. I have the popcorn popper my parents used when I was a kid and thought the kids would get a kick out of seeing how we used to make popcorn. The kids are having their friends across the street over tonight to watch Milo & Otis & wanted some popcorn. I broke out the old machine and they have had a blast. Check out the video! :)

Goodbye Sillybandz, Hello Erasers

2011-01-18T19:21:00.002-06:00

Emma-Rae just HAD to go to Walgreens after school today, she desperately NEEDED these erasers! No more trading Sillybandz at school, tomorrow she will be trading these little erasers. I love the fortune cookie! :)

Yesterday & Today

2011-01-10T10:24:00.006-06:00

We spent yesterday laying around...

Watching movies...

Swimming & visiting Grandma @ the hotel...

But this morning things were a little bit different...
3 inches of SNOW!!!

Last year it was a snow cat...this year it is a snow TURTLE!!!

Most Wondrous Dishwasher

2011-01-10T02:26:00.005-06:00

This week we made lemonade out of lemons! Our washing machine croaked & that led to a new washer, dryer, & the one appliance my itsy bitsy kitchen has been missing since we moved into this house 11 years ago...a dishwasher!! Found the washer & dryer set on sale at Lowes, stacked them on one side of the kitchen, met a plumber at Lowes that ran the water to the other side of the kitchen. Put the dishwasher where the washing machine used to be & then my husband whipped up a new stainless counter for us, love it!

Framed the Oregon Coast postcards I picked up at the Oregon Coast Aquarium this summer, love them!

Funny Day

2010-12-29T11:09:00.003-06:00

I'm going through all of my pics from 2010, working on my new calendar...when I came across this jewel of a clip that I don't think I've shared with anyone. John-Robert, this Summer, said he was going swimming in the Pacific & it was COLD! Guess he's trying to take after his crazy Dad that jumped in Crater Lake a few years ago!

Summer Fun

2010-11-22T09:17:00.003-06:00

Experimenting with this movie maker, lots of photos of the kids having fun this summer.

Happy Belated Halloween

2010-11-10T10:19:00.002-06:00

Happy Belated Halloween! I forgot to put a pic up of my little pirate & ninja, they got LOTS of candy & we had a blast!

Pumpkin Party

2010-10-24T12:01:00.005-05:00

Last night we had our annual Pumpkin Party! Perfect weather, friends, & great food (think potato soup & David's special apple cider).

Roasting some hot dogs by the fire & listening to The Nightmare Before Christmas...it's tradition!

Crazy boys!
The Dads are the official "de-gunkers!"

Esha & Jordan's pumpkin

Nice picture...
Scary picture...
Dark picture...the 3 picture thing is all part of the annual tradition :)

He's Our Goalie

2010-10-24T11:57:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was John-Robert's last soccer game of the season. John-Robert says in his little matter of fact way that he was born to play goalie, looks like that may be the case. :)

Fall Fun

2010-10-24T11:23:00.005-05:00

In between school & work we've been having some fun!

Aunt Steph with the kids about to go on the scary night ride! They all took the 4wheelers to this old haunted house by the cemetery & some of the Dads were waiting for them there to scare them!

John grinding some of the nails down on the fence panel we repeaired. The kids thought that was awesome!
Emma-Rae's foot down in the hole...we had to dig this huge piece of concrete out of the hole to put the new fence panel up, what a pain.
Brats @ the Zoo having fun!
Cutest prairie dog ever!
Oops! Except for these too...they are the cutest prairie dogs ever!
An egg picture...if you know the Mempis Zoo you'll understand the relevance.
Won't be too long & all 4 of them won't fit on this cow anymore!

What We've Been Up To...

2010-10-02T15:31:00.005-05:00

We've been busy...here's what we've been up to! :)

We went to Members Night at the Zoo...awesome time! We met the Thorne family & Dr. Godfrey's family for a picnic before enjoying the zoo. We spent some time watching the sea lion show (as usual), letting the kids play in the geyser at Teton Trek, & watching the kids swim in the Nile as they danced to music from Grease. Fun & FREE! :)

Can't wait until these hippos get to move into their new home!

This dude wouldn't let me into my car to pick the kids up from school...he's a repeat offender!
This is Alice & Bella. Alice is the tabby...she's lived with us the past two months but went to a new home on Thursday. Alice went to live with Mr. Jason & his family on 16 acres in Mississippi, she's going to be a top notch barn cat! Alice just couldn't seem to get the hang of using the litter box consistently, I'm glad to say that she has left me her LAST poopy present!
We had a little bit of other animal drama...Gigi woke up limping one morning. An anti-inflammatory & a brief call to Dr. Godfrey fixed this girl right up...notice the Get Well Soon sign Emma-Rae made for our poor pup!
Emma-Rae and I made homemade...I'm talking from SCRATCH cake donuts. Too bad John's not a big fan of cake donuts. The kids loved them but they were an awful lot of work compared to running down to Howard's Donuts. We probably WON'T be doing this again.
This is the super fancy, super heavy, donut cutter that I asked John to make for me, John asked Mr. Brian to make it...it turned out really nice!
We're in non-stop soccer & volleyball mode...have been since August. John-Robert has found his calling as the team goalie, as he said after the game last week "I was born to be a goalie." Gotta love it!

Sports mean always carting around extra kiddos...gotta help each other out & get our kids to the game! That's Emma-Rae's team mate squished in the middle here, we love to have her! :)
Not many volleyball pics because they just don't come out too well in the gym...bad lighting, insufficient flash, beats me!
That's the jist of what we've been up to around here...I'm in school, kids are in school, John's working. Dad's still in the hospital, recovering well at this point from his amputation. Mom was in town last week & made it to one of John-Robert's games & one of Emma-Rae's. We definitely enjoyed having lunch with her both days! We're planning on decorating the house for Halloween today & tomorrow, the weather is gorgeous! Maybe I'll get another post up tomorrow evening.

Oops! John-Rob's Kindergarten Graduation

2010-08-20T09:46:00.003-05:00

How in the world did I miss posting this??? I was scrolling back down my blog posts & saw that I had Emma-Rae's last day of school, but no John-Rob. I am immediately rectifying the situation. John-Robert graduated Kindergarten with flying colors, we are so proud of him...what a big boy!

John-Robert & his teachers Mrs. Harty & Mrs. West

Brother & Sister after graduation

John-Robert was SO over the tie!

And I quote "Enough with the pictures woman! " Yes, he said it! :)

Back to School!

2010-08-20T08:47:00.007-05:00

Emma-Rae is trying REALLY hard to get her religion homework done but her psycho cat Bella is too jealous & wants all of her attention!
We're back to school! Last Thursday was their first day & today we're officially finishing our first week, woo hoo! John-Robert started 1st grade, Mrs. Smith is his teacher. Each class has a mandatory parent meeting...all the parents come & squeeze into their kids' tiny desks & listen to the teacher talk about the class rules & how badly they need you to volunteer for xyz. When I got to the classroom that evening John-Robert had already been moved to another desk because sitting in the far back corner next to one of his buddies from last year wasn't a good idea & of course Mrs. Smith had a story to tell...about this little boy who looked at the clock all day long & asked if it was time to leave yet, yes the little boy was John-Robert. Did I mention that she found it particularly hilarious because the little boy openly admitted that he had no idea what time it really was because he wasn't really good at telling time just yet, oh my yes. :) He's had a great week, he's stayed on "Excellent" behavior & hasn't had a hard time with any of his reading assignments, I'm so proud of him.

Emma-Rae has started 5th grade, Mrs. Metaxas is her homeroom teacher. Emma-Rae had Mrs. Metaxas as her 1st grade teacher & as a tutor...she LOVES Mrs. Metaxas. :) When you are in 5th grade you start changing classes...different teachers for each subject in different classrooms. Emma-Rae was pretty overwhelmed by her schedule but Mrs. Metaxas helped her hi-lite it so she knew where she was supposed to go & everything has been okay. Rae's had a good first week of school...she had to write an essay about her heritage & her family traditions. It was cool to hear what Emma-Rae thinks are her favorite family traditions...birthday cake for breakfast on your bday, our annual Halloween party with our neighbors where we carve pumpkins, have a bonfire, & cook s'mores, going to Grandma's for Thanksgiving, putting up our Christmas tree in time for my bday, Maw-Maw & Paw-Paw Frank's Christmas visit, our annual Christmas Eve party with our neighbors (we track Santa Claus online and they have to send their friends home & get to bed before he gets to TN), having Christmas dinner with Emaw, Poppy, Esha, & Maw Maw Shorty...she had a decent size list going. Emma-Rae's also started playing volleyball this year, she's loving it so far. We have soccer & volleyball practice tonight, I may get some practice pics up this weekend. I'm the team Mom for volleyball, Emma-Rae is super excited about that...I'm so proud of her, she's such a sweetheart. I sent her to school today even though she didn't feel well at ALL this morning, seems like she has a cold...but no fever. I hope she can make it through the day without having to come home, we'll see. :)

Emma-Rae's Last Day of School

2010-06-04T18:48:00.004-05:00

Emma-Rae's class 4C
Emma-Rae & her awesome teacher Mrs. Christian
Rae & Jaia...we're going to miss Jaia she's going to a new school next year
Rae & Jaia & Julia...Julia's moving too! :(

Cleaning their desks with shaving cream...a 4C tradition
We are so proud of Emma-Rae!!!

John-Rob & Emma-Rae last day of school lunch at SoulFish

The Toothpaste Millionaire

2010-06-04T17:41:00.005-05:00

Emma-Rae's reading class put on a play called The Toothpaste Millionaire one of the last days of school, the kids played multiple parts & didn't have much rehearsal time but we were sure proud of them!

Kindergarten Zoo Trip & Class Picnic

2010-06-04T17:14:00.005-05:00

John-Robert's Kindergarten trip to the Memphis Zoo & their class picnic. They had a wonderful time of course & I must give photo credit to John-Robert for ALL the pictures of animals & feet!

The grizzlies were SUPER hot that day, but we enjoyed the Teton Trek exhibit.

John-Rob's feet...who knows why

Bored wolf, the wolves always look bored...or they pace the enclosure.

Sea Lion Show...one of his favorites, I think this lovely lady is named Chloe.

Kids hanging out at the original entrance to the Zoo...things have sure changed!
John-Rob and one of his teachers...Mrs. West!
John-Rob & Caleb, relaxing & eating a bite of lunch at the picnic
John-Rob & friends playing bag-o while all of the other kids are eating...he probably took one whole bite of his food that day

Fossil Hunting at Coon Creek

2010-06-04T16:41:00.005-05:00

Mother's Day weekend the kids & I went fossil hunting at the Coon Creek Science Center. We had an awesome time and found TONS of fossils. The site contains Upper Cretaceous marine shells & vertebrate remains from 70 million years ago!

The kids @ the Orientation Center...ready to find some fossils!
Patiently removing a fossil from the bulk of the matrix
John-Rob on a supply run!
Taking a break to pose pretty for the camera!

Lookee what Emma-Rae has cleaned up!!!

Craft time!

Look What I Found This Morning

2010-04-26T12:09:00.004-05:00

Look what I found this morning! He was wandering around in the middle of Kirby Whitten Rd. in Bartlett...we saw him when we were on our way to school. I told the kids I'd go back and see if he was still there after I dropped him off...he was & he jumped right into my car. He reminded me of Kaygen...just a little lost old man. I've called all of the local vet clinics, shelters, put an ad on Craigslist & Petfinder...going to put up flyers in the area we picked him up from in a minute. He had a collar on...no tags & no microchip! I know someone will be looking for him,he has been well taken care of, he just wants to lay at my feet and appears to be housebroken. Hopefully his people will call looking for him soon!

Videos From WDW

2010-04-08T16:20:00.006-05:00

I think this is going to be the best place for me to share some of the video I took on the Top Secret Aunt Meredi trip...so here goes the video from Aunt Susan's Birthday, enjoy!

This is a video of us singing Aunt Susan Happy Birthday at the Beach Club's Cape May Cafe', we had a special guest (Goofy) join us, too bad he didn't sing...I apologize in advance for my singing, lol!

This video is of Aunt Meredi & Aunt Susan composing some pretty great music in Figment's Imagination What If Labs

This video is a portion of the end of night show at Epcot called Illuminations...I have no earthly idea why the video flips sideways a little bit into it, I don't remember doing that...but then again it could have been those delish martinis I had at The Flying Fish Cafe'!

Rob's Orthodontic Drama

2010-04-07T09:52:00.004-05:00

Last week John-Robert had to go to the orthodontist for xrays & molds of his teeth...oh the drama! John-Robert has these crazy shark teeth...there are teeth coming in behind teeth...baby teeth aren't coming out...no room for adult teeth even if the baby teeth do come out, or so we think. John-Robert had to have some crazy xrays & molds made of his mouth so his orthodontist could apply some formula to them & see if there is going to be enough room or if we need to begin "treatment" whatever that may mean...Dr. Crowder said he wasn't going to "confuse" me with a bunch of options until he was sure we needed to do something. John-Robert was a champ & only became upset a few times because of his gag reflex...he was positive he was going to throw up. Currently we are still waiting to hear back on the results & praying we don't "need" to do anything because the nice receptionist keeps telling me they will roll the cost of the visits into the treatment amount every time I try to pay them, and that my friends sounds VERY scary to me!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T10:03:00.003-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day, aren't these glasses a trip! Happy Anniversary John...I love you!

Memphis Symphony Orchestra Field Trip

2010-03-12T20:41:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago Emma-Rae's class went on a field trip to see the Memphis Symphony Orchestra perform a concert for young people at the Cannon Center. The kids seemed to enjoy it, Emma-Rae thinks she wants to play the violin so she was paying pretty close attention to everything that was going on. The conductor was great, she spoke in between pieces and shared info. with the kids that they could actually relate to.

Emma-Rae & her classmate...downtown Memphis

Memphis Symphony Orchestra playing some W.C. Handy, enjoy it, we sure did!

Epcot

2010-03-11T12:12:00.005-06:00

The following info. was taken from allears.net
Dedication Plaque;
To all who come to this place of joy, hope and friendship, welcome.

Epcot Center is inspired by Walt Disney's creative genius. Here, human achievements are celebrated through imagination, the wonders of enterprise, and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits for all.

May Epcot Center entertain, inform and inspire. And, above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man's ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere.

**********

Epcot has come along way since the early days. On October 1, 2007, Epcot celebrated it's 25th Anniversary!

On October 1, 1979 ground broke for the second Theme Park at Walt Disney World. Three years and $1.4 billion later, on October 1, 1982, Epcot Center opened at the Walt Disney World resort. The new Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow was connected via monorail to the familiar Magic Kingdom theme park.

It was Walt's Dream to have a self-contained city reside here... unfortunately he passed away before it could be built. The Walt Disney Company created a theme park which incorporated Walt's love for World's Fairs and the promise of the future!

A few of our favorite Epcot pics from our 2008 visit-

Afternoon @ the Memphis Zoo

2010-03-11T11:08:00.007-06:00

We've managed to stay pretty busy during Spring Break. After John-Rob's appointment with the orthodontist yesterday we went to the zoo...yes, I know he's only 6 and that is pretty young to be going to the orthodontist but we've got some issues going on in that mouth of his. Big fat bunny teeth + a wittle bitty mouth = our new BFF Dr. Crowder. Although I tried my best to explain what an orthodontist does...John-Robert still had some anxiety about going to see Dr. Crowder. Whenever he would say he was going to see Dr. Crowder he would say "Dr. Crowder...dum, dum, dum" Not like stupid dum but like scary dum, the kid is a trip.

We met my Dad, Miss Angela, Kaitlyn, & Zachary around lunch time. It was cloudy & looked like rain, but it actually turned sunny & was pretty warm. We didn't take too may pics of the animals...just the crazy kids.

John-Rob, Dad, & Rae @ the entrance to the Zoo. John-Rob said the gator was eatin' his head!

Emma-Rae, Kaitlyn, Zachary, & John-Robert...posing in front of the stinky antelopes.

Emma-Rae took a bunch of polar bear pictures, the bears were really doing some swimming...they are HUGE!

Emma-Rae wanted me to take some pics of her with one of the bears, she loves these pics...they just pretty much creep me out.

John-Rob was posing with his bow and arrow...he said he's the chief!
No bow & arrow necessary for Rae, just a pretty smile.
Rob, Rae, Kaitlyn, & Zachary...acting crazy in the Northwest Passage area of the Zoo.
The geysers out in front of the Teton Trek area...I said they could get their feet wet, John-Rob listens SO well!

After my children were completely soaked we said goodbye to my Dad & our friends. I had the kids strip down in the car & put on whatever dry clothes they still had...I think they managed to come up with a flannel shirt, hoodie, & raincoats. We stopped by Sonic for some ice cream and came home to crash in front of the T.V. We found a new show to watch on A&E...it's called Billy the Exterminator, he's an exterminator in Louisiana...it's so gross!

We watched these crazy Siamang Gibbons for a bit at the zoo, check out our video. They put one of their Gibbon friends over with the orangutans...now that Gibbon is BFFs with the female orangutan Chickie...the Gibbons are hilarious because they "yell" back and forth to each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Zoo

We Love You Kaygen

2010-03-01T04:56:00.004-06:00

Yesterday we had to let one of our very best friends go. For us it has been awful, horrible, gut wrenching, traumatic, the list goes on & on, we're all a wreck around here...but in the end, it was what we needed to do for such a loyal & loving friend. It's hard to believe that it was almost 15 years ago when John was at the casino & won some cash playing craps, he spent that money the next day when we went to pick up Kaygen...hands down, best money he's ever spent. We picked Kaygen's name out of a baby name book I picked up at a garage sale. Kaygen means little fiery one & was he ever. I remember the first time we ever left him alone, right after we moved into a duplex together...I came home to what looked like a tornado had gone through that duplex. Every cushion on the couch was in a different room and he "peeled" an entire bag of potatoes! John spent a lot of time training Kaygen, he was an excellent duck dog, super smart & super tuned in to John. Kaygen adored us all but in the last several years he became John-Rob's dog in particular. John-Robert is scared of everything, he won't go to the bathroom by himself, his room by himself, you name it...he requires an escort. Kaygen very happily obliged John-Robert in his needs, even when his arthritis was getting him down...John-Robert just had to call..."Kaygen, heel" and Kaygen would drag himself up. Kaygen lost his hearing this past year & John-Robert had to resort to hand signals, he slept with John-Robert in his bed every night until about a month ago when he just couldn't jump up there anymore. Kaygen was a part of our family, we are all better people for having this amazing creature in our lives. We love him and will always miss him.

Oh Come ON People

2010-02-24T22:37:00.004-06:00

Rae, Rob, & I took the two little dogs for a walk tonight(it's our new thing). I thought we were going to have a fairly uneventful walk, last night Gigi pooped mid-stride & said poop bounced off John-Rob's shoe...talk about drama! We were in the home stretch when we walked past a house that still had those light up deer & icicle lights out in the yard & on the house...you know, Christmas decorations.

Rob says, oh so LOUDLY..."Oh come on people, are you waiting for next Christmas?" Oh yes he did, we spent the rest of the block talking about judging people, maybe someone is sick, maybe someone doesn't have the time, maybe that someone just doesn't even want to...it's not our place to judge. However, I must say that I fervently hope he sticks to his revulsion of year round Christmas decorations...it would certainly be one less thing for his future bride to blame on his Mama! :)

Fat Tuesday = Crazy Clothes Day

2010-02-17T06:18:00.003-06:00

Fat Tuesday = Crazy Clothes Day at school. The kids had a great time putting on this getup, I got some early morning entertainment when I dropped them off at school...everyone was dressed pretty crazy, kind of a shock to look at when you're used to seeing all the kids in uniform everyday.

Heading to the Movies

2010-02-13T11:28:00.005-06:00

Time to hop in the shower because the kids & I are heading to the movies. We're going to see Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief...enjoy the trailer, we'll give you our review later!

Oh Edward...

2010-02-13T11:21:00.002-06:00

Remember that kitten John-Rob got for his birthday...well here he is...Edward. Rae just took these pictures & I like them...and nope, I don't have a clue as to why everything I type is underlined...problem is, I can't get it to stop either!

Snow Day Continued

2010-02-13T11:01:00.004-06:00

Just to finish up the snow day report from Monday...we've got our future meteorologist here checking how many inches fell...4 inches in our backyard.

Rae & Rob with their snow cat...notice the long tail (like Edward's)it's the stick if you can't figure it out

Probably the most interesting development of the day...the huge snowballs that accumulated on Nikki's leg hair after a few minutes of romping in the snow. I actually had to take him inside, put him in the sink, & run warm water over these things to get them off. Check out the video below...poor dog couldn't even walk with these things on him!

Partners in Crime

2010-02-13T10:55:00.002-06:00

These two...absolute partners in crime...WATCHING me wash the dishes, Rae said they were keeping me company.

Surprise We Have Snow!!!

2010-02-08T07:02:00.003-06:00

I got a phone call around 5:30 this morning, it was Margaret...she asked if I'd looked outside yet...what? Are you serious? We have over 3 inches of snow now, and it's still coming down...no work, no school, & snowball fight coming soon!

Our backyard!

Just One of Those Days

2010-02-02T19:51:00.004-06:00

Today was just one of those weird days...kind of went back and forth between THIS

and THIS

John is at a business dinner, my kids are playing a totally inappropriate video game, and I'm thinking there are only 5 more minutes until bedtime. I have to say, as inappropriate as the game is...the two of them are definitely working as a team. Emma-Rae just said...John-Rob I think you don't understand the concept of going somewhere to hide...John-Rob says, I don't need to hide, I have a gun you don't even have yet...Emma-Rae says...where did you get that gun, what kind of gun is it???John-Robert says...Emma-Rae, just go look in your gun stock, you'll find it in there. Oh no, Emma-Rae come & save me I'm right next to that guy...okay John-Rob I'm coming in...no Emma-Rae don't go out there yet... Yep, it's bedtime!

Happy Birthday John!

2010-02-01T13:45:00.003-06:00

Happy birthday my darling! Although I know you'd probably really like to be spending your special day looking at a beautiful Cayman sunset...

OR be hanging out in exotic places with your friends...

OR be dancing with unknown WILD women...
at a party like this...(yes, I remember this part)
These two little cuties are REALLY glad you aren't. In fact they are currently counting down the minutes until you are home from work. We love you, happy birthday!!!

Arches National Park Utah

2010-02-01T13:13:00.009-06:00

This summer on our way out to our family reunion in Park City, Utah, we visited Arches National Park. It is a gorgeous park & we managed to leave unscathed...even though @ one point our GPS wanted us to drive off the side of a cliff!

John & Emma-Rae decided they would like to hike up to one of the Arches...maybe it was Delicate Arch? John-Robert was NOT happy that I thought he should stay behind.
In fact, this particular picture captures exactly HOW unhappy he was with my decision.

However...this is THE reason for my decision, the arch wasn't just around the corner or anything.
And by now he's REALLY thirsty...and why are they taking so long!!!
It's always Rock-n-Roll no matter where we are!

Supergirl!!!!

I've Picked Up on a Theme

2010-01-30T14:34:00.007-06:00

So I've just finished spending half of my day putting together my 2010 calendar on Snapfish. That means that I've been looking at pictures from 2009 for...hours. I noticed a theme...there are an inordinate amount of pictures of my children with animals. I know, duh right...but the animals aren't all alive, no kidding...apparently my kids love inanimate animals as well. To show you that I'm not exaggerating, the pictures below are just the tip of the iceberg. Enjoy!

Snow Day

2010-01-29T18:59:00.006-06:00

We had snow & ice today, in Memphis that = a day without school or work! Unfortunately the "snow" was pretty slushy & I don't have any adorable pictures of the kids playing in the snow, just this one taken a few minutes ago of them snuggling under the electric blanket with me...we LOVE our electric blanket. When they are all grown up I'm just going to have to remind them that when I wanted to take their picture in the snow the camera was always missing because they would spend all morning using the video function to record the dogs playing outside, the snow falling, the street, the tree...you get the idea...I do have a pretty cute video to share, I think I'll call it Snow Day according to John-Rob.

Nikki looks so crazy in this picture because he was eating snow & RUBBING...yes rubbing his face in the snow...go figure...the dog really is nuts!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

2009-12-01T23:53:00.006-06:00

Happy Belated Thanksgiving...if I didn't talk to you...we had a great Thanksgiving! John finally had some days off work, we had fun out @ Stacy & Dave's playing Mexican Train Dominos...Megan won...Maw-Maw lost, then we went up to Louisville to spend Thanksgiving with my Mom & David. Believe it or not...I took not one, single, solitary Thanksgiving picture. Louisville seems like a great city, Mom & David's house is really nice, & we had a wonderful time. John took some pictures & video of John-Robert's Thanksgiving program, the kids were adorable...enjoy!

Disney on Ice

2009-09-27T15:21:00.002-05:00

I took the kids to see Disney on Ice Friday night, we had a great time! Check out all the goodies the kids got...cool new hats, sno-cones in fancy cups, Disney knows how to make a night of it! ;)

This section of the program was about the Disney fairies, you know...Tinkerbell & friends, it was wonderful!There they are with those light up toys they just HAD to have...I think if we didn't end up with that sword John-Rob would have had a stroke, boys & their light up "weapons" oh my...Good night from Mickey & Minnie...it was awesome watching the kids wave goodbye to Mickey & Minnie...after the house lights came up John-Robert turned around to me & said...that was GREAT! thanks Mom! Something to remember, thanks for another magical night Disney!

Straight A's for Rae

2009-09-27T15:13:00.004-05:00

Just need to brag on my girl for a minute...we had parent/teacher conferences week before last & the kids got their interim reports last week...our girl has straight A's!!! She was sooo excited, A's all the way from Spanish class to Music, we're so proud of her. She's also very proud of her cursive handwriting, here's an example of a recent handwriting assignment.

The Ostrich Egg Surprise

2009-09-27T15:02:00.003-05:00

John-Robert's class creates "traveling" books. All of the kids in the class contribute a page to the book. The pages read all the same except for the single element the kids get to choose. Then the kids take turns taking the book home during the week, we read them aloud and it is supposed to help with their reading skills. I really got a kick out of the book this week, the Kindergarten age is just full of wonderful imagination...John-Robert's contribution is the last page, I love it!
Okay...so...each kid gets to choose what the ostrich finds in the egg...

And of course...John-Robert's...oh so practical & logical, the ONLY kid in the class that actually put a bird coming out of the egg!

Bee Beary

2009-09-27T14:14:00.005-05:00

John-Robert brought home Bee Beary last week. Bee Beary is a bear that the kids take turns bringing home from school. Bee Beary comes with a journal, you are supposed to write a journal entry describing what Bee Beary did with your child after school. The day John-Robert brought him home I had to work late, Aunt E-sha saved the day & took pictures of the things they did. the next day @ school the teacher reads the journal entry after rest time, John-Robert said that everyone liked our journal entry & the kids all said they liked grilled cheese & pickels too...hope you can see the pics well enough to read our entry.

Missing Teeth & Alien Art

2009-09-27T13:58:00.005-05:00

The tooth fairy has been very busy around here lately...(John-Robert calls Aunt Stacy the tooth fairy). John-Robert's lost his two front teeth. They were very loose & "bucky" and they just happened to get "punched" out by his friend James when they were watching a movie in cousin Megan's room...the movie was Nacho Libre...a wrestling movie, go figure! :)

Emma-Rae also lost 3 teeth that same week, she just had a dentist appointment and he did say that she was losing some of these teeth a bit early...problem with Rae is that her teeth take a LONG time to come in...guess she'll be sporting this jack o' lantern look for awhile! :)

John's been working a lot and the kids and I have been keeping pretty busy. I took them to Perkins for breakfast last weekend and they created some pretty cool aliens while we waited on our food.
Totally diggin' Rae's one eye alien...love the spots!
John-Robert asked me how to spell alient...that's what he calls aliens- ALIENTS...he was sort of surprised to find out that there wasn't a "t" in alien

Soccer Domination

2009-09-27T13:44:00.006-05:00

Soccer's pretty much been dominating our lives lately. Rae has practice on Monday & Wednesday, John-Rob has practice on Tuesdays & Thursdays...then they both have games on Saturdays and an occasional Sunday...oy vey!! However...they are both doing great this year & having fun, bruises and all. Yesterday both of them won their games, John-Robert scored 3 goals...Emma-Rae prevented many goals from being scored. Incidentally Emma-Rae & her team played in a torrential downpour...it was hilarious, the girls were looking @ us like...seriously, we're still playing. But...no lightning means the game goes on. Here are some recent soccer pics.

Back To School

2009-08-25T09:18:00.004-05:00

Kids went back to school last week. No tardy slips yet!!! :) Rae has Mrs. Christian and is in 4th grade. I totally remember 4th grade...my teacher was Mrs. Oetken...she had blonde hair like Dolly Parton, wore thick blue eyeshadow, and a gold ankle bracelet underneath her panty hose. Mrs. Oetken's outfits were always very "matchy matchy" and we always played this flash card math game.

Check out her new chucks...that's what she wanted for shoes this year...a pair of chucks and some wallabies...can you say 70's???

John-Rob doesn't care what kind of shoes he gets...as long as he can test them out @ the store by making sure he can run REALLY fast in them, he's fine with whatever I pick. Coincidentally his foot is the same size as Rae's...and there's a 3 year age difference!

John-Rob started Kindergarten this year...his teachers are Mrs. Harty & Mrs. West, I think he's going to have a wonderful year! I remember my Kindergarten teacher too...Mrs. Connie LaFoy, funny that I actually got to see her again a few years ago when I was visiting Grandpa in Arizona...she is an Iowa snowbird. :)

Yesterday was the first day I had to drop John-Robert off and watch him walk in with Emma-Rae instead of walking him in myself, now THAT was hard! That and the fact that John-Robert wanted $1.00 today for cookies instead of .50 so he could buy a cookie for his "girlfriend" too...I'm NOT ready for "girlfriends."

I've Been Cookin'

2009-08-25T08:39:00.005-05:00

I've been cookin' and I have evidence! Thought I'd get these pics up while the plumber is here this morning...unclogging the sink so we can stop washing dishes in the bathtub...note to self...no more potato peels in the garbage disposal...

Saturday Night: Cheese Quesadillas...these were a hit with the kids
John cooking the meat for our burritos...I really DON'T like to cook the ground meat, so he usually finishes it for me once I get it going...thanks honey! :)

My boring burrito...I'm picky so I don't put any nasty stuff like onion, beans, or sour cream on mine...

Sunday morning breakfast...that the kids didn't want to eat...why??? you might ask as you look at the deliciousness I put on the table...because they were watching Ghostbusters...the 1984 movie...the movie they can push pause on and finish watching AFTER they eat...

Sunday Dinner: pork tenderloin, green beans, & hasselback potatoes...the potatoes were a complete waste of time, all that cuttin' & bastin' and bread crumbin'. They ended up tasting like baked potatoes with salt, butter, & parmesan cheese...

Monday night dinner: Homemade chicken salad & chips...chicken salad was good, not great...same scenario as the potatos...an awful lot of choppin' and mixin' for something that was just okay. My Mom did give me a good idea for cooking the chicken I bought to make this slop, she said just put it in the crock pot all day and then when I get ready for it the meat will just fall off the bone & you won't heat up your house. She was right! I turned the crockpot off and took the lid off right before True Blood came on and after the show it was cooled down enough to be picked at.

And last but not least...the jello cake...turned out delish and looks much better after the jello firms up and the cool whip goes on the top!

Whatz On The Menu

2009-08-22T17:09:00.002-05:00

So...I'm going to try again...cooking that is. Made a menu this a.m., John & I went to the grocery this afternoon. $60 bucks @ Aldi & $140 @ Kroger...this should last all of us for 3 squares a day until next Saturday afternoon...provided everything I cook this week is decent enough for John to take for lunch the next day. Just for kicks...here's the menu this week. Maybe I'll take pics of dinner each night & post them, we'll see.

Saturday Dinner: cheese quesadillas & burritos (quesadillas for Rae, Rob, Kaitlyn, & Zachary)

Sunday Breakfast: Bacon, Eggs, & Biscuits

Sunday Lunch: Coldcut sandwiches & chips

Sunday Dinner: Pork Tenderloin, Hasselback Potatoes, & Fresh Green Beans

Monday Dinner: Homemade Chicken Salad on Deli buns & Chips

Tuesday Dinner: BBQ Chicken Legs, Corn on the Cob, & Broccoli

Wednesday Dinner: Piggy Pudding

Thursday Dinner: BBQ Chops, Mac & Cheese, Fresh Green Beans

Friday Dinner: Frozen Pizzas

Dessert for the week: In the process of making this jello cake, my Aunt June makes it & it's really good...it's in the fridge now firming up & so far...my jello cake looks like...well, it looks like ass.

Rae & Nikki

2009-08-02T10:53:00.002-05:00

Just a few crazy funny pics of Rae & Nikki...

We're #1 on RockBand

2009-07-19T09:29:00.003-05:00

We're (I mean John) is #1 on RockBand!!! #1 out of ALL the people that play Rockband...that's our band- Afflicted SIXX, awesome John- Congratulations!!!

RIP Walter Cronkite

2009-07-19T09:08:00.002-05:00

Walter Cronkite legendary news anchor for CBS passed away Friday at the age of 92.

Disney Memory

2009-07-18T20:58:00.005-05:00

Great memory! Dinner @ the Liberty Tree Tavern with Minnie Mouse & friends. I remember being so happy to get out of the rain & sit down for a nice warm meal before Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party. The kids had a ball meeting all of the characters...I believe this was the night Dave developed a crush on Minnie.

Father's Day

2009-07-18T20:40:00.004-05:00

We went to IHOP (John's pick) for breakfast on Father's Day. The real reason for this post is to showcase this particular talent/thing John-Robert does @ any restaurant he can. He builds things out of jam/butter tubs...maybe he'll be an architect or engineer. :)

Father & son on Father's Day. I didn't intentionally omit a pic of Rae & Daddy, but she was pouting and wouldn't let me take her picture. :(

Happy Birthday John-Robert

2009-07-18T19:42:00.003-05:00

John-Robert turned 6 on June 19th. He pretty much wanted the same thing as Emma-Rae...Kaitlyn & Zachary to spend the night & then we went to the movies the next day & saw Night @ the Museum the Battle of the Smithsonian- it was hilarious. I surprised John-Rob with an EXTRA special bday present this year...a kitten! He has named him Edward & loves him very much!

John-Rob didn't even want to put him down to blow out his candles!

I have a few videos of his bday that I wanted to upload but for some reason blogger keeps giving me an error tonight...maybe some other time!

Sam & Ali's Wedding

2009-07-18T19:25:00.004-05:00

Sam & Ali got married June 14th. We had a great weekend with family & friends. Rehearsal dinner was Friday night @ the Blue Fish, cookout @ Mom's on Saturday, & the wedding on Sunday downtown @ the Cadre building. Admittedly I took a very limited amount of pics...I really don't even have one of Sam & Ali in full wedding gear (the photographer said no flash photog & I kind of "lost" my camera after that :) We're so happy for Sam & Ali- Congratulations!

Mom & Cameron- chief crane caretakers with some of the strands they strung @ the Blue Fish before everyone arrived, they did a great job!

A close up of a crane on the table @ the Blue Fish.

The happy couple- Ali & Sam!!

Centerpieces in reception area

Rae & Rob...having a ball!

My brilliant Aunt Susan suggested a walk to get rid of the wiggles while we were waiting for the ceremony to start. We walked down to the Peabody, we just missed the ducks so we had to go to the rooftop to see them in their duck palace. Aunt Susan took this family pic of us on the Peabody rooftop.

Daddy/daughter dances- Dave & Taryn and John & Rae

John-Rob walked right up to his big sis & asked her, very formally- may I have this dance. It was so cute!

The girls were gettin' down with Stacy & Dave!

Cute cousins- Alyssa & Emma-Rae!

Happy Birthday Emma-Rae

2009-07-18T12:47:00.005-05:00

Emma-Rae turned 9 on June 1st. Zachary, Emma-Rae, Jordan, Kaitlyn, & John-Robert...before we lit the candles. Emma-Rae specifically asked her Daddy to make her bday cakes this year, this one is her fave...red velvet!

Emma-Rae invited Kaitlyn & Zachary for a sleepover for her birthday. The girls BFF ready to settle down & watch a movie.

Three rows of BFFs tucked in for the night...Kaitlyn & Rae, Rob & Zachary, Gigi & Kaygen (lol)

Another bday request...instead of a "kid" party Emma-Rae wanted to take her BFFs to the movies, we saw UP it was great. They are posing here with the Harry Potter poster- kind of funny because we're going to see HP today.

Catching up AGAIN

2009-07-18T12:35:00.003-05:00

I'm behind again, I confess...no posts since May. We've been VERY busy. Kids got out of school the end of May, June started with Emma-Rae's bday, softball games, Sam & Ali's wedding, John-Rob's bday, & our family reunion in Utah...whew! I thought things were starting to settle down but now soccer is starting up and the summer is almost over! Kids go back to school third week in August. Guess I'd better get on it & get things brought up to speed before John-Rob gets that golf club after me! :)

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T09:17:00.002-05:00

Had a really great Mother's Day yesterday. After lovely cards & candy from the kids before 7 a.m. :) we went to McAllister's for lunch, then to the movies- saw the new Wolverine movie- it was GREAT!!, then came home to veg out on the couch & watch VH1's top 100 rock songs. Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the Mamas I didn't talk to yesterday! If you're interested take a quick peek @ the interview I've uploaded with Hugh Jackman talking about the Wolverine movie, it's a good interview.

Best Laid Plans...

2009-05-02T20:38:00.002-05:00

Well...today was supposed to be the BIG day I'd been planning for, the yard sale. I've been in & out of the attic for a week or more, getting stuff together, even cleaned out the garage so I'd have a place to put the stuff and what happens...complete & total RAIN out!! Now, really...it rains every year the weekend of Music Fest but I didn't have a lot of options since I'm working every Saturday this month & June is the "crazy" month. John loaded up the truck, two truckloads that is, & hauled it ALL off it AmVets this morning.

I instead ended up painting John-Robert's room which comes with its own complications...can you say paint failure, scraping & mudding half a wall & now stuck waiting on the mud to dry. Hopefully we'll have better luck tomorrow & can get it finished up, should have taken before pics but was just not with it today! I'll try & get some up tomorrow.

Happy Birthday

2009-05-02T20:32:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Marilyn & William!!!

So Long Ago...

2009-04-23T13:17:00.001-05:00

Things have been busy...and my camera is acting stupid so....no posts for 2 weeks, shame on me!!! My Dad is scanning a lot of my old pics for me now & he emailed me this yesterday. This was so long ago...I think it said 1999. I love you John!!!

Gigi's New Doo

2009-04-09T21:30:00.001-05:00

Hairdo not doo doo...Gigi's been a horrible mess here lately but Lee groomed her for me today & she is all soft, tangle free, & smells great! Plus she got a new Easter bow, check her out!!

My Tulips

2009-04-07T10:22:00.002-05:00

We've had a lot of wind & cold weather the last few days but I thought I'd better get a pic of my tulips up before they were all gone...bought these on clearance @ Lowe's last fall, threw them in the ground & just crossed my fingers hoping something would come up...amazingly enough, they did. We have enjoyed them...too bad they don't last very long.

Memphis = Home

2009-04-06T14:11:00.004-05:00

Memphis = Home. Sometimes that's bad & sometimes that's good. Bad is listening to the news @ night & hearing how many people have been shot/killed that day. Good is sitting on my neighbors front porch watching the kids play. I don't know who to give photo credit to...but for you out of towners this is the river, the bridge, & Redbirds stadium, home.

Sam & Ali Relaxed & Happy

2009-04-06T12:47:00.002-05:00

I like this picture of Sam & Ali a few weekends ago...I stole it from Sam's Facebook...don't they look relaxed & happy!!

Howard's Donut Buzz

2009-03-29T10:37:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-29T10:23:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-27T19:24:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-27T19:21:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-23T17:55:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-03-23T17:43:00.004-05:00

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

2009-03-23T17:31:00.001-05:00

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

2009-03-23T17:16:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-03-23T17:12:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-19T20:02:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-19T19:30:00.006-05:00

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

2009-03-13T20:58:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-13T11:06:00.001-05:00

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

2009-03-12T15:54:00.008-05:00

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!

2009-03-12T15:22:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-03-12T15:06:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-12T14:58:00.003-05:00

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. :)

Prayer Request

2009-02-03T13:48:00.003-06:00

2009 has already been a whopper and my family, and I mean ALL of my family really needs everyone's prayers right now. For example, in just the last week my mother-in-law had a quintuple bypass, my four-legged neice Penny (a beagle) was viciously attacked by another dog and is looking at a 6 week stay to recuperate with us @ Pet Health Center, Jenny was attacked getting out of her car going into her apartment- thank God she fought the man off & she is okay, John's great-uncle Wesley passed away, my car broke down taking the kids to school yesterday and is going to cost me over $1,000 to get it fixed, and I had to leave work early today to pick Emma-Rae up from school because she has a stomach virus. However, we are all hanging in there, it could always be worse, and we're saying lots of prayers but extra prayers couldn't hurt.

Love- Sarah

Back from Miami

2009-01-18T19:30:00.003-06:00

We're home from Miami. This is a pic of John & I in Key West, 90 miles from Cuba, southernmost point in the continental U.S. I'm REALLY behind with this blog, bear with me... I'm going to be doing some catch up the next few days. I know I'm wearing really hideous sweat pants in this pic BUT this was all I could find @ the first shop we went to and it was freezing (breezy 60's- not really freezing) but a little too cold for the jean skirt I was wearing & rather than be miserable all day I opted for being unattractive. :)

Dear Santa,

2008-12-17T22:56:00.003-06:00

Dear Santa,
ALL that Emma-Rae wants for Christmas is one of the American Girl dolls, Elizabeth Cole to be exact. A few months ago when Emma-Rae started asking for Miss Elizabeth I explained that she was certainly welcome to put Elizabeth on her Christmas list with the understanding that Elizabeth cost quite a bit of money and she may not get as many presents as she was accustomed to if she really wanted her. Here comes a good definition of active thinking- Emma-Rae told me that instead of asking me for Elizabeth she'd ask Santa for her because Santa didn't have to buy her, Santa could make her, oh my... :)

Dear Santa,
John-Robert would like any type of BIG, BAD, Nerf gun that he can shoot at everyone. Don't cha just wanna break your neck rushing to our house Christmas morning!

So... we'll see how these two make out Christmas morning. John-Robert's a tad worried about being on the naughty list, he's even asked if Santa puts him on the naughty list will he still get presents from us!

PHC Christmas

2008-12-16T10:30:00.004-06:00

Instead of a "Christmas party" for work this year we went bowling on Saturday, played dirty Santa, & went to Red Robin for dinner. John's little sister Alysia watched the kids ALL day- she's the best! Kaitlyn & Zachary from across the street were at our house with Rae & Rob, their parents were in Vegas for the weekend. They go to Vegas for the first time & it snows in Vegas for the 1st time in 5 years- go figure! I didn't take many pics, hopefully someone will share some soon.

So... this is Andrew & look @ his feet- he has a little helper! Lauren & Cynthia (our 2 IP nurses), they are saying Inpatient Rocks!

Bonnie (outpatient nurse) & Andrew (animal care assistant)- they sort of have the same smile. They were in major competition mode, the loser has to clean the NASTY kennel of the winner's choice.

So... Bonnie lost by ONE pin, Andrew can't wait until Piper comes to stay with us, look out Bonnie. Let me say that if you saw how Bonnie bowled you'd be really impressed she got 116. The girl literally picks up the ball & just chunks it down the lane, it's amazing!

Lauren's schooling us all on how to play dirty Santa, look how good everyone was paying attention- sort of looks like a staff meeting to me! :)

Dr. G's two cute kiddos!

Dirty Santa presents- John ended up being the proud owner of chihuahua S&P shakers and a Christmas tree ornament, I ended up with lotion, a Starbucks gift card, & two scratch off lottery tickets. One of my tickets was a loser & the other one I got a free ticket (haven't turned it in yet). I originally chose one of my own gifts- $5 and a $15 iTunes gift card, BUT Cynthia stole it! I think the HOT gift of the evening was a bottle of Captain Morgan Rum, it was stolen several times & Robin ended up taking it home. Doc came in at the tail end of our game, he was up at the clinic talking about dog beds with Penny (what a surprise!) :)

Dinner @ Red Robin was really YUM! I had a chicken wrap & John had the classic cheeseburger, I was so full you could have rolled me home. Al, Joyce's hubby changed his mind several times before he ordered because he kept looking @ the menu and everything looked good! I think someone took a picture of everyone at the table, there were 17 of us I think- I'll have to add it when someone emails it to me. Thanks for dinner Doc!

Samuel's Graduation

2008-12-16T10:12:00.004-06:00

Samuel graduated this past Saturday from the University of Memphis. The ceremony was downtown at the FedEx Forum, they had a morning and afternoon ceremony- Sam's graduation started @ 10 a.m. John and I were able to sit with my Mom, David, Ali, & Ali's parents. My Dad sat in a wheelchair accessible section.

It was so "dark" in the forum that I ended up having to take pictures on the jumbotron. Looking at the picture below Sam is seated in the section closest to the stage on the right.
President of the University and deans sat on the stage, it looked very nice with the holiday decorations. Mom said that when David got his doctorate this past summer there were no decorations of any kind and the lights and she thought the lights & poinsettias really added a nice touch.

Sam & Ali outside after the graduation.

Video of Sam's name being called, shaking hands, etc...

After graduation we all shuffled out of the forum like tightly herded cattle and made our way back to our vehicles. We then met up with everyone at the world famous Gus's Fried Chicken on Front Street. Oddly enough I didn't take any pictures but Gus's is a little hole in the wall with good fried chicken, white bread, & beer. This was Sam's choice for lunch. We really had a good time. Congratulations Sam, we're so proud of you!

Our Tree Decorated

2008-12-16T10:09:00.003-06:00

Friday night we got the tree decorated, John put on the lights and sat down, the kids and I did the rest. Not too shabby.

Samuel's Senior Show

2008-12-16T09:55:00.006-06:00

My brother Samuel has been working on a bachelors in fine arts from the University of Memphis. Last Thursday the seniors had their graphic design show. All of the pictures below are of Samuel's senior project- the Snake River Revival- enjoy!
This one with the lady riding the giraffe is my favorite, so I put it on here first! :)

Mom & I both thought the snakes were a tad creepy, but I love "The fair where dissonance reigns"

I wish I would have gotten a close up of the label on the bottle, it's a really cool label- talks about mending a broken heart, etc...

I like this one too, especially the part about the light up shoes! :)

Samuel, Sarah (me), & Elizabeth (Mom)

I took a REALLY good picture of Sam & Ali but she hasn't emailed it to me yet- hint, hint! :)

We're so proud of you Sam, great job!!

Our Tree

2008-12-10T22:10:00.003-06:00

I met John & the kids at Easy Way in Bartlett this evening to pick out a Christmas tree. This is what we ended up with, as usual I picked one a little on the large side (against John's better judgement), guess we'll be decorating it Friday night. One side of it still needs to fall some more & tomorrow night we're going to be at Sam's senior show. I'm not sure the tree is even going to stay in that place, I wish the piano wasn't so dang heavy and we could roll it into the dining room for the next few weeks- oh well, we always make is work somehow- this tree is rather fat though.

Disney World- Are We There Yet?

2008-12-10T21:25:00.004-06:00

We're back, yes we had an awesome, magical, exhausting (yet oddly relaxing), fantastic time. Between my camera, Dave's, & Emma-Rae's we have hundreds of pictures AND hundreds of stories. We haven't gotten all of our pictures yet, we had tons of pictures taken of us by the Disney photographers... we'll share those when we get them. I think what I'll do is post a few pics a day- starting with the beginning....

Stacy & Dave picked us up around 4 a.m. Saturday 11/29. First stop- Hattiesburg, MS to pick up Taryn. Nothing too exciting happened on the first leg of this trip. The kids watched Tom & Jerry and NEVER went back to sleep. Emma-Rae's not sleeping in this first picture, she's watching Tom & Jerry- John-Robert was leaning on her head but the flash of my camera disturbed him- can't you tell? :) I think we stopped at some McDonald's somewhere for breakfast, nothing too exciting yet.

We picked Taryn up in Hattiesburg without a hitch, I think we were slightly ahead of schedule at that point. It had been raining since we left Memphis, not enjoyable for the driver (Dave), especially because the windshield wipers really needed replacing. The picture below of the three kids is when we're in the tunnel in Mobile, AL.

If I'm remembering correctly a little bit before we got to Mobile we were pulled over. The sheriff didn't see the drive-out tag in the back window of the suburban Dave had borrowed so he was wondering where our tags were- THEN, since he had to find something wrong with us crazy criminals heading to Disney- he wanted to see Dave's proof of insurance. Ooops, no such luck- Dave didn't have his insurance card on him. The sheriff gave him a warning ticket & told us we may get pulled over several times before we get to FL but once we were in FL we were SURE to be pulled over & ticketed for not having proof of insurance, he suggested we stop somewhere and get the insurance company to fax him a copy of one...okay, thanks for trying to freak us out & kill our Disney buzz. Dave asked him if he could give us an escort through the remainder of Alabama (OMG- yes he really did) Mr. officer declined. John-Robert of course was watching a movie or doing something in his own little world during all of this and kept talking REALLY loud, so loud we couldn't hear the sheriff a few times- which completely freaked Emma-Rae out because she thought we were all going to jail. John's look pretty much sums up the experience...

Not too long after we got into Florida we saw a car in a ditch and a woman waving her hands out the window- presumably for help. We were the part of the highway divided by a forest & were going about 75 mph so we couldn't turn around or anything but Dave did call Florida highway patrol (*FHP) with the location/mile marker & they dispatched assistance. Thankfully the car didn't look damaged, it was just so rainy- sure hope everything turned out okay for her.

It was a LONG drive, Emma-Rae took a million pictures of her and Taryn in the backseat- I'll only subject you to one. They were doing lots of "posing" notice the identical placement of their hands on their chins-LOL! Also notice they are wearing sunglasses, WHY?? I'm sure it's only to look cute because it RAINED and was cloudy 99.9% of the drive.

One thing that sure made our drive a little nicer were the maps John printed out for each of the kids. It was great to be able to show the kids on a map how much further it was, John-Rob still asked are we there yet a million times. But seriously, as a whole the kids did really great putting up with such a long drive. Poor Stacy was so squished (she has MUCH longer legs than I) she had her legs propped up on the ceiling, John made it through the drive by consuming several Rock Star's and Dave drank several Red Bull's. Dave had Stacy's XM radio transferred to the Suburban so between that and our iPod's we had plenty to entertain us. However- I'm just gonna say it- John is the pits to listen to music with, he HAS to be in control of the music & generally only likes the first two seconds of a song. If he didn't like a song you played he'd just push the little button on the steering wheel and it would be complete silence, I would then rush to find a song he liked but in the meantime just played whatever (I called it filler) he didn't appreciate my filler songs. So not fair- but I love him anyways.

Angel of God Award

2008-12-10T21:09:00.003-06:00

Today was a very special day for our family; Emma-Rae received an Angel of God award during mass this morning. The Angel of God award is given to a child that exhibits Christ like behavior (with an emphasis on kindness to others) on a regular and consistent basis. There is only one child chosen per grade a few times a year. I have to say that I have never been more proud of her than I was this morning, yes- I cried. :) The picture below is of Father Coy putting on her pin.

There she is, see the pin on the collar. She was very surprised to see me in mass, I hid pretty well from her until I took communion- she really had no idea she was getting this award. Did I already say how proud of her I am????

Stitch's New Home

2008-11-22T07:15:00.004-06:00

This is my beta fish Stitch, yup he's named after the Disney character Stitch. Stitch lives in my office @ work. Stitch is a scraggly looking fella (note the pitiful fin condition) but is happy to see me in the morning because Sarah = breakfast. When I was cleaning out his bowl a few days ago I barely bumped it on the side of the sink & it broke! Stitch lived in his "cleaning cup" for a day or so until I went to PetSmart and got him a new home.

Stitch seems to be liking his new home, although he's not too sure about those plants in there. Stitch pretty much likes to lay on the bottom of the bowl & "sleep" he's not very energetic.

Thought I'd throw this picture in here just for kicks & to make Miss Angela laugh. I was playing with the color accent deal on my camera again, one of the crazy people across the street had some kind of drama & the fire department and ambulance came.

The Boil

2008-11-20T15:11:00.003-06:00

This is the boil that raised it's ugly head (literally) on Emma-Rae's leg last weekend. It got MUCH worse than this but is now MUCH better. She's being a bull right now & won't let me take another picture of how much better it looks. In all fairness she's really sick with a nasty cold & just doesn't feel like being bothered. We went to see Dr. Charles, got some antibiotics & it's been getting better ever since.

Emma-Rae & her BFF Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn's giving her moral support- Emma-Rae was stuck in the bed with a heating pad on that boil. John made them some chocolate chip cookies, we popped in a movie for them, and they were good to go!

Chillin'

2008-11-20T15:08:00.002-06:00

John-Rob chillin' with K-Dawg last Sunday, watchin' some Scooby Doo!

Playing with my NEW BFF (my camera)

2008-11-20T14:53:00.004-06:00

Well... the first pic is of my REAL BFF, I was buggin' him last weekend while he was trying to work. :)
Then I started playing with the color accent feature of the camera, in this pic I chose the blue in John-Rob's coat, it also picked up the blue in the postcard of Cinderella sitting on the piano

Then I chose the red panes of glass in my lamp...

AND the brown color of my Diet Coke...

You can also adjust the setting to pick up colors similar to the main color you've chosen, I opted not to do that in most of these pics.

Baby Panda

2008-11-19T11:52:00.002-06:00

Eleanor sent me this email with all of these baby pandas in it... I'm sure everyone has seen the email before but I think this particular panda has to be one of the cutest things ever. Regardless... it sure cheered me up today! Have a good one!

Motley Crue Saints of Los Angeles 2009 Tour

2008-11-15T23:34:00.002-06:00

Yeah baby! Motley Crue SOLA tour kicks off in February. It's going to be really tricky but John & I are going to try and see the show in Nashville on 2/21. The tricky part will be that we're supposed to leave the following day for the Cayman Islands to celebrate Stacy's big 40 b-day & Dave & John happen to have a February b-day as well. The Lemas can't join us this time around but I was telling John tonight that I've never seen Motley play an arena show- they usually play a longer setlist & have extra awesome pyro & theming than they do in a festival setting, so... I asked John if he'd be up for going to see the show & driving home afterwards so we could catch a plane the next day. He said he was up for it, have I told anyone lately how MUCH I love this man... he works his butt off & is still up for my crazy ideas. Now... if only I could take advantage of the pre-sale that's going on now... I'm having a hard time getting a passcode & have emailed the appropriate folks for assistance but as for right this minute, no tickets yet... I'm afraid the close seats, the ones with the good view of Nikki Sixx, are going to be gone before we get ours.... ugh!!!

Happy B-day to ME!!!

2008-11-15T23:02:00.005-06:00

Happy B-day to me!! Early, b-day present. John & the kids asked me what I wanted for my b-day a few weeks ago. I told them I wanted a new- smaller/better/newer camera to take to Disney, we'll be getting back late the night before my b-day. I finally picked one out night before last, it was hard to decide- it's a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS & the color is Bohemian Brown! I went on & picked it up from Costco yesterday so I could make friends with it before we left for Disney. It has this REALLY cool feature where you can take a picture in black & white & choose colors from the environment that you want to accent & those colors show up. As soon as I get the software loaded & some pictures taken on it I'll show you an example. It came with two free memory cards & a case. Wish I'd have known it was going to come with a free case seeing as how I'd just ordered a new case. But... the case I ordered is a pelican & it's pretty good quality, waterproof, etc...

I also ordered this bag from ebags to carry while at Disney. Last year I borrowed one similar to this from Lauren, I like the kind that go across your chest, backpacks can be a problem on rides & a big purse tends to slide off my shoulder.

Our vacation is just around the corner, I'm trying to get my ducks in a row. I've been throwing things in a Rubbermaid tote that's in my office as I come across them. Things like... flip flops, goggles, glow sticks (found those in the dollar bins @ Target woo hoo!!) travel size toothpaste, etc... FYI I'm bringing the glow sticks so the kids can be lit up during the parades & fireworks at night- going to be much cheaper than buying $20 light up toys every night! :)

My Fall Wreath

2008-11-15T22:54:00.003-06:00

I've been really looking hard for a pretty fall wreath that doesn't have some sort of bird in a nest sticking out of it or cost $39.99. I wasn't having any luck so after Emma-Rae's eye appt. last week I thought I'd stop by Michaels & see about making one myself. I got a grapevine wreath for $3.99 and since all of the fall picks & greenery were 70% off Emma-Rae & I picked a bunch of stuff out. I think I ended up spending around $20 bucks. This is the end result, I'm pretty satisfied, the colors of course look better in person BUT seeing as how this thing took me less than 15 minutes to put together I'm okay that it's not perfect, AND I'm really okay that I have something I like for less than $39.99. Come on by and check it out in person if you get a chance!

Uncle Fudd's Farm- 2nd Time Around

2008-11-15T22:35:00.007-06:00

Field trips with a bunch of 4 & 5 year olds are interesting to say the least. John-Robert & I rode with Mary's Mom (Miss Twinkle is what John-Rob calls her) it's really Miss Tina. Miss Tina & I were responsible for the 5 kiddos below. The three boys are pretty much the clowns of the class, we really had our hands full! :) Like John always says- keeping them together & "in line" was like herding cats.
Out at Uncle Fudd's farm we got right to business & played a version of hot potato (with a pumpkin) and tug of war. John-Rob was the anchor for Miss Sellers class, they didn't win BUT Mrs. Fudd told them that they would be the first ones to get off the hayride, guess that's some kind of a consolation prize.

We took off on our hayride, let me tell you about this hayride. Uncle Fudd talks to the kids and tells them he needs them to look for some things they have lost- a yellow fish, a red can, a lazy worker of his named Punkin head, a bull's horn (yes, I really am remembering all of this) AND last but not least a little red headed girl named Lisa. Lisa got lost a day or so ago & her parents really need us to find her. Are you kidding me??? You should have seen those kids faces, they ranged from complete shock to terrified. The little boy sitting across from me says- Oh My God!! So... all of us parents & teachers have to start explaining this is just a game, etc.... way to go Uncle Fudd. We find all of the lost items & hop off to go through the corn maze- but WAIT Uncle Fudd has to tell us another story before we go through the maze- at the end of the maze the kids get to pick a pumpkin so this story can't be too bad, right?? Wrong!! Uncle Fudd starts off by telling the kids to stay on the path because there are spiders & rats hiding in the corn- kids IMMEDIATELY go into panic mode- John-Rob included because he doesn't like bugs at all! In addition to that Uncle Fudd tells us that last weekend his granddaughter had her end of the year softball party & they went in the corn maze after dark. All of a sudden her Coach, Coach Ron supposedly comes runing out screaming- someone cut his arm off!! Uncle Fudd says he needs us to help Coach Ron out & find his arm! John-Rob tells me- you're gonna have to get that one! Kids are asking parents- didn't he die if his arm was cut off, why did someone cut his arm off! These stories would have been better if they were told to an older group of kids- at the end of the maze someone had an arm stuffed with straw, kids were still kind of nervous. John-Rob is still talkin' about that arm.

After picking a pumpkin we went back to the farm, kids rode the train, fed the critters, & played on the playground.

Miss Sellers & Mrs. Sexton roasted some hot dogs for everyone & we had a great lunch. We luckily have awesome room mothers- we had a great lunch AND Miss Tina brought coffee!