Hello again...

I have been SOOOO crazy. That is my excuse. We are in the middle of starting up a new curriculum that has, for some reason, fallen into MY lap. (I am still wondering where all the people that were "on board" are.) We start on Wednesday night so I have been spending day and night (Literally) on the computer looking for "stuff" for classes. I am excited to get started though.

Here's the latest:

Tatum started 1st grade. I can not believe it. She is doing pretty well. She went to a private school last year and they taught reading a little different than in the public school, so she is having to re-learn some things a different way. For this reason we are debating sending Eden to public school instead.....we will see how this year goes.

Eden starts school on Tuesday. She is starting her second year of preschool ( on purpose! :)) She actually starts school on her 5th birthday, so we will be partying! :) Nothing like kicking the year off right!

Again, I can't believe that Eden is going to be 5 years old. It just doesn't seem that long ago. I do still have a (very) little part of her that is still my baby. :) She is growing up sooooo fast.

We have begun our house!!! (Do I hear a cheer? ) We finally got moving. For MONTHS we have been arguing with our architect about house plans, only to fire him without ever getting them. I ended up drawing up our plans, and that seemed okay with the bank...Yeah for us. We had our footers dug and poured in the same day and a week or two later, our friend Adrian began laying the block for the foundation. He is almost done ( I guess..I don't really know what to look for! :)) and then our framer will be on his way to do his thing. I am PUMPED....more than you will ever know. We have been living in someone elses house since November....ugh. I am ready to have my own things and my own bed. I am so grateful for our friends that have let us "house sit" while out of town.....I have no idea where we would be otherwise! :)

I feel like I am rambling, so I will go.
Bye!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!!!

You HAVE to have this picture when you go to Disney World. It's a law I think. hehe!

Tigger and Darby stop for an autograph and a picture with Tatum and Eden.

This is my favorite float in the Night Parade...of course a picture doesn't do it justice. But close.

This was great. Belle won as the favorite princess at Magic Kingdom. I think it was the REAL one. :)

We had a great time ... all 10 of us! We were at the park from 9:3o am to 1:30 am the next day! Whew. We were all tired but it was worth it! I hope we can make it back in the next few years because we didn't even get close to seeing everything. The girls have a whole lot of wonderful memories now.....mission completed.

Bahamas

David is showing off where we took our daily naps! I love the Sundeck!!!

I have mentioned for the last few months that we were planning a trip to Nassau, Bahamas via a cruise. Well....we finally made it!!!

We left from Ft. Lauderdale on August 2nd. We headed out on the Regal Empress across the big blue. (And yes, it is Big and Blue...to quote Nemo!) I wasn't sure how I would do with the whole sea-sick part of the boat, but luckily Dr. Murphy saved the day and called in some patches for me to wear! They were lifesavers!! I recommend them to anyone!

We had a great trip. It was fun to relax and hang out on the sundeck. David and I took a nap two days in a row on the very top of the boat. Talk about relaxing....the waves crashing and a few seagulls...(they follow the boat!) squawking. Ahhh........

We arrived at Nassau Sunday morning. I have to be honest and say that I wasn't blown away with it. However, I LOVE LOVE LOVED Atlantis. If we were to ever go back to the Bahamas, I would go there. It is a self-contained city within a building. (We actually went back to the beach there!!) We saw Micheal Jordan's "suite"....that is more like a 5000 sqft house. I would love to stay there. And I can for the tune of $30,000 per night. So, I guess I will be wishing a while.

Sunday Slip and Slide....Redneck Style

Our good friends, Dale and Amanda, have introduced us to the Redneck Slip and Slide. Last week they had us over after Church to eat pizza and let the girls play in the water. (Their little girls are my little girls best friends...it works out nicely!) Anyway, we got to talking about how the slip and slides these days aren't that great. They are only about 2 feet wide and 8 feet long. No grow person can go down the plastic strip. So, Dale added 3 large pieces of plastic to make a HUGE slip and slide. ( 7 feet wide and 30 feet long!!!) Just grab an air mattress and you are on your way....quickly.

Well this week we decided to host Sunday lunch. We had Dale and Amanda and their girls, and some other friends, Brandon and Elizabeth, over for lunch and an afternoon of slipping and sliding. We set up the slide in the front yard ( that has a great slope for a slide I might add!) and turned a sprinkler on it. Away they went. The girls had a blast! Because it was so hot, the adults were VERY tempted to go down too! Well, I caved and went down. I jumped on a raft and went FLYING down the hill. Once at the bottom, I took out Amanda. It was hilarious! Luckily, Elizabeth (our photographer) had already left and didn't get the "ugly" on camera. Although, we would have the Grand Prize to America's Funniest Home Videos in the bag!

Enjoy the pictures!! (Thanks Elizabeth!!!)

Tatum is such a free spirit!!
Amanda was at the bottom to catch the girls before they landed in the gravel!! We only had two actually make it to the rocks....but no blood! :)

Tatum: Bionic Kid

Tatum has amazed us, in her short lifetime, with her resiliance to injury. When she was two she scaled the chain fence in our backyard and escaped down the gravel drive (all while I swapped the laundry over!) to the neighbors house to go visit the "daggies." We found her (too) close to the lake. She wasn't the slightest bit upset or worried that she didn't know where mommy was. (David and I couldn't walk once the adrinaline left us.) Then later that year she fell headfirst off a 10 foot staircase in our neighbors garage onto concrete.....ONLY sporting a black-eye and fat lip. The following year she fell off the toilet (while going potty...still don't understand this one) and hit her forehead on a step stool and had a gaping hole that needed 10 stitches. (Can we say trama....for mom?) That wound no sooner healed when she did it AGAIN! this time, she didn't need stitches, just a butterfly and that liquid band-aid stuff. Then....later that same year she tripped while running to her bed to "flop" and missed the mattress and hit her cheekbone on her bedframe. Now she has an extra dimple on that side when she smiles. Really. (We think she damaged some of the muscle in her cheek!)

This past Monday, we were getting ready to leave the house for the day when the girls went out on the back porch. Well, the back door was REALLY hard to open and generally took a full body heave to get it to open. Eden decided that she wanted to go inside and accidently shut the door behind her. Tatum turned to follow her but couldn't open the door...so she knocked. Well, that would have been fine except the window pane was already cracked and a little weak. Tatum knocked too hard and sent her arm THROUGH the glass window pane. She panicked and yanked it out so fast that she sliced her wrist in two spots.

All we heard in the back of the house were blood-curtling screams....from both of the girls. David and I made a mad dash to the source of the screams....then we saw blood everywhere....and Tatum holding her wrist. (Enter panic mode!) She was hysterical. It was all we could do to get her arm away from her body so we could check and see how serious this "slice" was. We ended up having to practically sit on her to get her to hold still. In the end we found out that her cuts didn't need stitches. There were angels around her little arm because a little further to the left and we might be singing a different song today. Thanks be to God!!!

Tatum is our injury prone kid. But, thankfully she dodges major injury and settles for band-aid worthy ones instead!

My Cardboard Testimony

A friend of mine sent me a video this morning that made me blubber like a baby. But most importantly, it made me wonder what I would say if I were to write a cardboard testimony. Please watch this video and share with us, if you want to, what your testimony would be.

Mine would say:

Control Freak!............................. God is in Control of this Freak! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ

But, you have been warned....grab a box of tissue before you start. It's quite something.

Rain, Rain, Go Away......

Just an update on our house saga:

*We have fired our architect. He was dragging his feet on our project and after avoiding our calls for 5 days, and still not having our promised plans after 3 and a half months, we decided to move on. So yes, we were back to square one on the plan thing....good news is WE have drawn out some plans that our framer (wonderful guy) can work off of. And the bank said they didn't even need a copy of the plans....Yeah for that!

*We have our pad for the house leveled/ carved out of the hillside. (Who knew we lived on such a slope?) We would have the foundation done but it keeps raining and getting the ground all wet so the concrete won't set. (Who knew it rained so much in July?) Please pray that we can get this show on the road this week....the weather man says it should be dry all week. ((Fingers crossed))

*Our water line is dug out. But now we are faced with digging rocks and root out of the bottom so we can get our pipes to pass inspection. And we live in "ROCK COUNTRY" here in Clinton. We have some doozy rocks coming up. Great for landscaping...if anyone out there wants a rock or two for your yardscape....come and get 'em!! (Seriously) This job is not an easy one. Our water line is over 450 feet long, and if you have spent any length of time outside, you realize that the heat index isn't our friend. David was out there for 4 hours yesterday in 110 heat index. I am having to be his protector...calling him every 20 or so minutes to make sure he is still standing upright, and reminding him to pour ice water on himself to cool off. I wish I could be more help, but I have the girls all day and they are in danger out at the land with all the dozers and equipment sitting around. Soon enough we will be calling that place home....ahhhh can't wait!

* I have been ordering fixtures via Ebay. I have been addicted to ebay lately. I have had my eye on the oil rubbed bronze fixtures for the kitchen and bath since we decided to build. Naturally they are one of the most expensive fixtures out there. ( I have high-end taste with low-end budget! :)) Well, I have to share my bargain news!! I went on ebay and bid on a few ORBronze fixtures, with a limit in mind. Here is what I got:

2 master bathroom sink faucets: List Price: $ 161.48 each
I paid on Ebay: $112.50....for TWO

Master Shower faucet: List price: $207.00
I paid on Ebay: $49.99

Roman tub fixture: List price: $268.00
I paid on Ebay: $ 76.00

Kitchen sink faucet: List price: $298.00
I paid on Ebay: $95.00

Needless to say I am SUPER excited about my "wins" on ebay. Now I can have my high-end taste and not pay the high-end prices! (And David likes that part too! :) ) I have also been to a lighting store auction that we got a good chunk of our lighting for around $100. Yeah!

Bargains get me all pumped up! I could go on for hours about all my "steals." But I will spare you.