A true friend

I truly treasure my friendships. It's too bad that my closest friends don't live close by. It is strange though that it doesn't matter how long we have been apart, or how long it's been since we last spoke, weeks, months, or even years we always seem to pick up where we left off. Thanks ,Sharon, for the long talk today. I miss you.

weight loss

I am so tired of being over weight. I have to do something-- but it seems all I do is fail. I know Brad means well, but I feel like ripping his head off every time he asks or mentions my losing weight. It infuriates me that everyone seems to be ganging up on me-- and I know they mean well-- but it still makes me mad. Brad's sister tried to say she would keep the kids if I wanted to try to go someplace, or do something, Brad's Dad Gave Brad $$ to let me go to the bariatric clinic. I guess I am going to call the Bariatric clinic today. Lets see what they have to say. I can't do it alone. By the way--- Brad lost more Brownie points when he mentioned yesterday that I might need to walk after supper.

Brad: -5 brownie points.

Folly Beach!

Last week we went to Folly Beach With my inlaws, Brad's Sister, Betsy, her Husband David, and their two children. 11 People in one beach house. And any one who knows me--- between being at the beach with all the sand and the company we had, One week was plenty. But the kids had a blast. (and Yes, that would include Brad in that statement)

I got up early each morning and spent 40 minutes slathering sunscreen on everyone-another 20 dragging everything out on the beach: (chairs, EZ up shelter, toys, coolers) and then spent about 2 hours on the beach with the kids before I had to take Savannah up to the house for lunch and a nap. I would normally take some sandwiches down for the kids and Brad on the beach once Savannah was asleep. (My in-laws would come up for lunch daily and Ma-in-law would banish herself to the bedroom and play her DS light. ) After Savannah woke up I would slather her up with sun screen again---- and myself, and we would hit the beach again. An hour and a half later She and I would head back to the beach house to start helping with supper. (Once again washing all the sand off---) I felt like all I did was slather sunscreen on the kids and my self and then wash sand off!

When we first got to the beach, Savannah was terrified of the ocean. She screamed and cried as the tide got closer and closer to our shelter, and one day she even climbed in my lap and pulled a towel over her head. By the end of the week she was playing in the surf with out tears.

She loved the tidal pools, and she and her 4 yr. old cousin, Tyler, played in the tidal pools each morning. The boys had a blast riding the waves on their boogie boards and catching minnows in the tidal pools. They even made a couple of sand castles. I wish I had a picture of one of their sand castles, because when my boys make a sand castle, it is extraordinary. Brad brings a large garden shovel from home to dig!

There were only minor blow ups between the children during the week-- I was a big girl and played nice with everyone-- even Ma-in -law.

Brad gained a brownie pooint by taking me to dinner the first night and leaving the kids with the inlaws--- but he lost his point on th e4th night when he chastized me in front of the whole family at dinner for buying 6 fuze drinks for $1 each. (I was still a big gril and told him he should fuss at me in front of 10 people at the table--- That shut him up.-- especially when my sister in-law -- chimed in and said-- she's righ,t Brad.

All in all--- I am glad to be home and away from the sand.

Spring Breeak Zoo trip!

We went to the Riverbanks zoo while on spring break, and had a fantastic time! Savannah Parker and Hunrer really enjoyed the warm weather, and the zoo wasn't crowded.

The kids had a fantastic time feeding the giraffes, visiting the farm, seeing the elepants and even playing with a green anole that Parker found!

Parker's Highlight was playing with the Green anole. We could have found one of those in the back yard!

Savannah had a grand time playing with the little figurines around the Zoo--- she especially like the ones that were her size.......

here she snuggles a little with the baby gorilla.

But Savannah especially loved the Lions and the elephants. I took the opportunity to take as many pictures as I could of the kids!

Hunter is getting so big and is trying to be cool all the time! I can't believe he is in 6th grade!

Parker is quite a character and for the first time in a ong time I got a real smile and not a fake one here. He tend to be a little over dramatic with his picture taking. I like this one though--- Can you bleieve he will be in fourth grade next school year????

Camping

We went camping this weekend. After my exhausting, but successful Charleston Field trip with 210 participants, I unpacked my Charleston gear, and repacked for a wet weekend at the river. Little did I know it would not only be really wet--- but muddy and perhaps even a tad dangerous. I took the kids to my Mom's house, and went on my way to the woods right off the Congaree River. All the while stoms were headed their way. When i got there I was informed that we would have some storms and we did have a scanner that was picking up the Fire department's warnings. the first warning was a severe thunderstrom warning that was expected to pass just about 8 miles north of us. I wasn't thrilled aobut this especially sinxce they were forcasting hail, high winds, and torrential downpours. We scurried to put everything away and tie everything down that could be blown away. Only minutes later there were Tornado warnings. The warnings were several miles above where we were but it is still a frightening experience when you have notheing but an EZ up shelter keeping the elements off of you. There were 8 of us packed under this flimsey shelter, and I made sure Brad knew that I was not happy with the situation. it began to pour, and we kept a stick under the shelter to lift the top every two to three minutes because the water was collecting on the plastic. We sure didn't need the top to come down--- It was raining so hard we could hardly see in front of us. then it began to hail. It is not any kind of a picnic to be in the middle of a hail storm (which were the size of marbles) under a tent! The water was running quite quickly infront of the shelter, and the hail was coming down pretty hard. After it was all over--- I was relieved, and nothing blew away. In fact we had no wind damage at all. I can say the same for a few miles up the road. Trees were down, power was out and debis was all over the road. I think being in a gully down by the river was the safeset place we could have been under the given circumstances. We did discover one thing--- we had a hole in our tent, and everything we owned was soaked. Needless to say-- before we go camping next time, we will be getting a new tent.

Expect the unexpected

This week has been full of disappointments and surprises.
#1 Monday-- Disappointment: Parents who say they want the best for their children, but refuse help or assistance.
#2 Tuesday: Surprise! $th grade was having a fund raiser at a local restaraunt and My husband said--- go, enjoy yourself with your collegues. I will stay home, and I will feed and watch the kids. Hmmmmm He just added a brownie point. Now he is only at -1.
#3 Wednesday: dissappointment: Savannah has been going potty every morning for the last 3 days when she gets up. Not today. No amount of chocolate or trickling water made her go when she got up. As soon as I put a clean dry diaper on her-- yep, you got it. She went.
#4 Thursday: Surprise and Disappointment. In class (written by a grant) that I am participating in, I recieved a lap top. It has wireless internet! (Maybe since ours has been down at the house, perhaps someone in our neighborhood has it and I can piggyback off of them everyonce in awhile......) On the other hand we were supposed to get a digital camera-- and they had not gotten them yet. I was really looking forward to playing with it.......
#5 Friday: I go Columbia today---- (that is good) but the weather is bad....... and unfortuneatley my weekend is so slam packed full I won't even get to hook up with Melanie.... sniff sniff. But I am going to the BIG GIRL BIG GOD conference. I can harldy wait to hear Babbie Mason. She is my hero.
Brownie point total: -1

Get paid for little effort--- sounds to good to be true.....

I will be getting a new camera today-- so you can expect to see more pics on my blog now. Everyone keeps asking aobut Savannah and the boys--- they are getting sooooo big! I can hardly wait to play with my new camera.

I came accross a site that asks you to advertise on your web pages and will pay you for the traffic. When i first inquired, they were fulll and could not add me to their list--- but I just recieved an email saying I could sign up to be a part of it and If you are interested in this you can read the details here: Get paid on 100% of your website traffic, no clicks necessary! How is this possible?
http://sellingppp.com/a.cgi?ppp=1206400381

I have looked at this until I am blue in the face, and it seems like a win win situation--- I give them advertising space and they pay me if someone looks at it? I will let you know how it turns out!