suped up slumber party...

So any of you who thought slumber parties were just for the young you need to spend some time with me. Holli and I had a slumber party last night with the teenage girls in our Family Group. Family Groups are small groups that meet off campus twice a month for Bible Study and discipleship. Holli and I lead the Senior High junior and senior girls and I love it. They are so fabulous! We have some who graduated this year and to send them off we had a slumber party at Opryland Hotel. It was so much fun! The girls were awesome! They were even awesome while they were pushing me into the swimming pool in MY JAMMIES! The good news is that I love to swim and I don't care what I swim in so I just stayed in the pool and enjoyed myself. Of course they posted some not so flattering pics of me getting out of the pool and facebook, and for this they will pay. 8-) Oh yeah...it's payback time baby. We ate too much, talked a lot, tortured the people in the hotel, discussed major life issues and where they were in their walks with Christ, we walked a couple of miles around the hotel, took some fabulous pics of the girls being silly, and finally at about 4:00am everyone was asleep.

So God is good and He took care of my hubby and my babies while I was away for the night. I like slumber parties.

In other news, praise God for Sarah Palin. I am feeling a lot better about election day!

correction

In my previous post I said the best thing about our trip was the marshmallow bed. That was not true. The BEST thing about our trip was that I got to have lunch with the greatest most amazing husband in the whole world EVERY SINGLE DAY! I miss him today. He is doing an amazing job and I love him with all my hearts and circles. 8-)

home, home on the range

Well we are home and back into the swing of life. It was a fun trip. Andrew worked his buns off, but the kids and I had a great time. 8-) We played at the pool all day and relaxed in the hotel. The best part was my big marshmallow bed. The best bed there ever was! I have never in my life slept on a mattress that wonderful before. I meant to look and see what kind of mattress it was, but I forgot. It was a king sized bed. We used to have a king, but we went to a queen because it seemed more intimate. 8-) Anyway, the bed had about 10 down pillows on it and a big fluffy down comforter. All the bedding was white so when you were on the bed it felt like laying a big fluffy marshmallow. The drapes in the room were heavy so when they were drawn you couldn't even tell it was daytime outside. I could have slept for days in that place. 8-) I miss the marshmallow. We didn't sleep all week I promise. It was just a nice break from the routine. The babies did awesome in the car. I don't think we had even one fight on the way there or on the way back. Isaiah was a trooper in his car seat. He just watched his movies and looked at books. 8-) They were great! I am very proud of them. Because of their great behavior Daddy won't be afraid to take another road trip. 8-) We will actually be heading back to South Carolina again at the end of September for more training, and again in October to my most favorite place in the world...THE BEACH! YAY!

So the only stinky thing about being gone it that I really miss seeing friends/family, and I REALLY missed being at church. I miss worship. Not that we can't worship where ever we are, but there is something powerful about standing in a room with other believers singing praises to our AWESOME GOD. I love it. It is nourishing to my soul even. That is a very intimate time with God for me. I missed having that this past week. God and I have a date this week for some serious time of worship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. We will be worshiping HIM of course. 8-)

fair, fish, and fairwell

Well we had the most fun at the fair Friday night. Although I must say there are some seriously interesting (and by interesting I mean horrifying) characters in this town. I would pass people and wonder what in the world could possibly be going through there heads to think it is okay to wear that in public. Anyway, all that aside, the weather was perfect, the fair food was disgustingly wonderful, and the kids had "the best night of their lives". Of course they say that every single time we do anything. We can be grocery shopping and one of them will inevitably spring with "this is the best night of my life". I love their love for life. I aspire to live like that. I want to always be having the best time of my life. 8-) It really was wonderful. MaddieBelle just absolutely had to play the fish game because she needed to win a fish since we currently don't have a pet. Here's the deal. Madelyne plays the fish game every year at the fair, and every year she wins a fish only to have it die a few short weeks after we bring it home. Then she is devastated because she has lost her best friend. Madelyne played the fish game last night, and Madelyne won yet another fish. So, we are praying that "fluffy" hangs on longer than a few weeks.

So, I am off to finish packing. We leave after church in the morning and I am only about half way finished tossing our junk into the many suitcases it requires to take this family anywhere. I am not a very meticulous packer. I just grab a bunch of stuff and maybe I get all we need, and maybe I don't. If I leave anything out it will just make the adventure more fun. It can be like roughing it. That's about as close to roughing it as I like to come. 8-)

The power of the pink...

So I have never been like a big Olympics watcher or anything. I would catch it here and there, but this year, oh this year is different. I don't know what it is but I can't miss it. Swimming and Gymnastics have consumed my evenings for the last week. I don't know if any of you caught women's gymnastics last night, but it was FANTASTIC! Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson of team USA took the gold and the silver medals. Nastia taking gold and Shawn taking silver. Now, many people believe that Nastia won the gold based on her tremendous skills as a gymnast. She nailed every routine. Stuck every landing. She was graceful and strong. This is not however what won her the gold in my opinion. While every other girl wore leotards in shades of red (some in white and blue), Nastia chose to be set apart. She wore PINK, and this is why she won the gold. 8-) I'm telling you, it's the perfect color. Of course her flipping and flopping and spinning and sticking probably didn't hurt anything, but i believe the pink sealed the deal. Oh yeah, and Shawn Johnson did pretty good too. Had she of worn pink then maybe they could have awarded 2 gold medals. 8-) Andrew says he would rather come in second because silver is prettier than gold.

Of course Michael Phelps did awesome. What a freak. Seriously, I think he has gills. I almost don't want to like him, but you just can't help it. He's just likeable...with his big ears and his mommy in the stands. Who doesn't like a guy that brings his mom and sisters to the Olympics with him.

Oh well, enough about the Olympics. Crayola crayons, the 24 count pack, are on sale at Walmart for 22 cents a box. I don't normally shop at Walmart because it gets on my nerves with it's bigness and all the bad stuff you hear about how they manufacture their goods, but come on people 22 CENTS! I bought like 50 boxes. 8-) I am a sucker for a deal.

Calling all bloggers...

This is a notice to all my sweet friends who always have the most wonderful posts on their blogs for me to read everyday. You guys are slackin. I have checked my normal blogs that I enjoy reading everyday for the last couple of days and have there been any new posts? No, there hasn't been any new posts. It's like all of the people who normally make time in their days to journal about what's going on in their lives have gotten too busy for blogging. What about me? What about my entertainment.? There are a couple of blogs that haven't been posted on in weeks! How do I know if you are still alive? How do I know if you are happy or sad? Picking up the phone and calling people...well that would just be too logical. So...here it is. I'm gonna need you people to stop taking care of your kids and teaching school and cleaning your houses and going to work and whatever else it is you people do other than entertaining me...and start blogging! I'm only posting this because I love you all. Thank you, and happy blogging. 8-)

By the way...I'd like to send a shout out to my amazing hubby who I love and adore. I am praising God for the man that you are and I am so thankful that God blessed me with you. 8-)

Here, there, and everywhere...

Let the traveling begin. YAY! Andrew called a little while ago to tell me that we would be packing up and heading for Greenville, SC Sunday night. What is in Greenville you ask...well I will tell you. 8-) Oracle training. What is Oracle training? Well, I don't really know, but I do know that my husband needs it very badly in order to not lose his mind at his job. He is a database administrator (don't exactly know what that means either). I call him...the computer guy. Anyway...he is brilliant. I can say that because I am his wife and biggest fan. I am very proud of him. His company recently purchased another company that runs off a different system and if he doesn't learn how to work the thing then he's gonna go postal. So...we are off to training. Well, the kids and I are off to a week of adventure in a new place while Andrew goes to training during the day. Greenville is very close to where Andrew's family lives, so we will take some time to go and visit grandmothers and aunts and uncles...oh my. 8-) That will be good. They haven't seen the babies in about a year. I love to go on adventures. When I was growing up my mom and dad would just randomly pack us up and we would take off on an adventure. We didn't so much plan vacations. We just got the bug and went. I loved it. So this week it's Greenville, SC. On Sept. 22 we will head to Gatlinburg for a couple of days. Sept. 29th we head back to Greenville for another week of training and adventure. October 11th we will be heading for Charleston, SC to enjoy the beach...my favorite place to be in the whole wide world. Then around November 5th our family along with the Hager family will be heading for Morelos, Mexico. We will be doing a lot of homeschooling on the road this fall. 8-) I am very excited. What's also fun is that when the traveling ends the holidays begin. Another of my favorite pastimes. Thanksgiving and Christmas! YAY!

Alright, for any of you who made it to the end of this blog...congrats. I tend to ramble when I'm excited. Sorry. 8-) I'm off to clean the kitchen so that I can mess it up again cooking dinner.

Oh...one more thing. The WILSON COUNTY FAIR starts on Friday. I LOVE going to the fair. It's so exciting! K...love to all!

drink our splash french fries!

Ok, so I do not want to be rude or disrespectful to any people or nation, but they started it. For anyone that caught last nights mens relay you will get this. The French team was talking smack. Saying things like that they whole reason they were at the Olympics was to smash the Americans. It was AWESOME! The American team swam like was no tomorrow. Perfection! Just when it looked like the French team was going to take the gold the last American swimmer (I'm terrible with names...other that Michael Phelps of course) came from slightly behind and won my .08 of a second! It was insane. I am usually not like an Olympics junkie or anything, but this year is turning out to be fabulous entertainment. Plus, I really love swimming. So all that smack talk and who's national anthem was playing at the medal ceremony? USA! Anyway...that's enough of that. I don't want to be obnoxious. 8-)

Well, rather than blogging I need to be gearing up for school. The babies have things they need to be doing to prepare for this next school year. Lots of reading for sure. I will be teaching 3rd grade, 1st grade, and kindergarten this year. I feel nuts already. They are all attending HCA's co-op which will be nice. A chance for them to get some social interaction. I try to keep them in the loop with friends and social activities. That's as much for me as it is for them. 8-) I don't want to turn them into those freaky little homeschool kids who don't know how to interact with the rest of the world. No offense to the freaky kids. I just feel like hanging with their buds is something they are really missing out on by homeschooling. God and I have had many conversations over this very matter. He said I still have to homeschool this year. 8-) I really do enjoy it even though I joke a lot about being crazy. It's hard, but it's also rewarding in many ways.

So, that's all for now. I hope you all are having a fantastic week. I pray that school is getting off to a fabulous start for all those who have babies starting school. I know it's hard. I remember sending Nathaniel to kindergarten and thinking I wasn't going to make without him home. It get's easier. Just don't let them see you cry the second day. It's fine the first day, but after that we have to be big girls. 8-) I love you all!

ready for bed...

I'm about to go and put my babies to bed. I'm procrastinating because while bedtime can be a sweet time...it can also be a frustrating and exhausting time. Andrew is laying on the couch watching Myth Busters...I do not like this show. Tired...that's me tonight. Wishing the routine were done and the house were quiet. No more drinks. No more potty. No more questions. Just for tonight. Then, when morning comes and I am energized once again, all will be fun again. I will laugh at the questions and revel in the noise that is my babies. 8-) I wonder if God is ever ready for me to go to bed?