Andrea and Laura: a fictional tale

Laura and I have had an eventful day here at the library. While everyone was in the back at the luncheon, Antonio Banderas came in and tried to woo us by giving us flowers. We posed for the camera.

When I informed Antonio that we were married women and could not accept his lovely gift of flowers, he sadly rode away on his motorcycle.










Laura, while glad Antonio was gone, was mad at me for giving back the flowers. I cried at her harsh words.

Luckily, Laura can't stay mad at me for long. She forgave me after making me promise to make her some sausage balls Friday to make up for the lost flowers.

The End!

Trains and Tattoos: Railroad Festival Fun

"If we don't get pneumonia after this, we'll never get it!"

That's a quote from a woman at a face-painting booth Saturday at the RR Festival. It was sooo blustery and it was sprinkling too, so the result was messed up hair and rain in the face. Still, there were droves of people. And we still had some fun.

Yes its blurry, I know. But you can still see the excitement on their faces...(sort of).

Both kids got little face painting/tattoo things too. Seth got one on his arm and used it as some sort of transmittor to call on superheroes. heehee Lily got a really pretty one, unfortunately, they started peeling before too long.

I hope the full face tattoo isn't a sign of things to come...

Sat. morning, of course, we went to Jessie's grandmother's house and she fixed us a meal fit for a king. Chicken spaghetti, deviled eggs, creamed corn, rolls, etc. But more on that deliciousness later.

Today is the start of National Library Week, so I'm going to have to cut this a little short today. Happy Library Week, everyone! (ha)

I'm very proud to present my genuis friend, Laura...

...and her solved Rubik's cube!!!

- Get Your Own

Oh help

My sister called me this morning and sang,

"Good morning to you!
Good morning to you!
we're all in our places
with sunshiny faces!
And that is the way!
To start a new day!"

She's insane! lol She suprises me with her cheerfulness sometimes. :) Apparantly when she worked in a nursing home, years ago, there was an old man there who used to be an elementary school principal, and he sang that song to her every morning. She's just recently revived it. This is not the first time she's called me before 6:30 in the morning and sung it to me!

Its almost the weekend again! Tomorrow we're going to Jessie's grandmother's...think I've already mentioned that. Sunday we're joining the Wellness Center! Yay! I love going to Jessie's grandmother's for lunch though. Like most grandmothers, she is an excellent cook. I'm dreading the drive a little bit...especially if its going to be raining. Cause this morning I thought, ooh, maybe we can stop at yard sales on the way there tomorrow! But then reality hit...oh yeah, its going to rain. Is is going to be severe weather? All the more fun to drive in! (That was supposed to be a sarcastic remark, by the way) :)

Hopefully I'll have some good pictures to put up Monday. I know I've been slacking on my picture posting, but I'll put some up soon. Have a great weekend, everyone. :D

Yesterday's weather was SO weird, wasn't it? When I woke up it was raining...then at lunchtime, the sun was shining. Kim and I were about to go to town yesterday, we stepped out on the porch and WHOOSH! The sky caved in or something! It was pouring down rain and hailing! Not little hail either. We proceeded to town (getting soaked in the process of getting into the car - it was quite humorous!) and drove out of the rain, into the sunshine! Weird, weird weather.
We checked out the Wellness Center yesterday...and we're so excited to join it! They have an Olympic size pool, a hot tub and a hydrotherapy pool (anyone know what that is?). They have a bunch of exercise equipment, of course, and aerobic classes on certain days of the week. However, most of them are when I'm working and EARLY in the morning (for me) like 8:15 and 9:00! lol But the part that really excited me yesterday was that they told me I could bring the kids and they could swim in the pool too! :) Its five dollars per extra family member to join...I assume I'll have to pay that for Seth and Lily too, even though they'd just be using the pool. Still, I think that's very reasonable. I'm excited!
You can also bring guests sometimes too I think. So does anyone want to go swimming? :)
We're going to join this weekend I think, (after our husbands get paid lol- they're going to join too, by the way.)
Last night I consumed a whole book in one night. I just couldn't put it down. Kim handed it over to me yesterday after she had read it. Its actually a youth book. Its called "Letters from the Inside" by John Marsden, about two teenage girls writing to each other, seemingly innocently, but (as you can tell from the title) one of them is in jail, but is not honest about it upfront. Its in epistolary form (its all written as letters, their letters to one another) which is part of what makes it so engaging...and hard to put down. Anyway, the ending...I won't give it away, in case anyone ever reads it, but it has just left me feeling SO disturbed! I just keep thinking about it! Have any of you ever read a book like that, one that just wouldn't leave you?
Today Lily's daycare is taking a field trip! They're going to the RR Festival (has it even started yet?) to ride the little train that goes round and round, and to eat hot dogs or something I guess. She was SO excited about it. I think Seth was wishing he could go too, but I told him we'd all be going Saturday, so he'd get to go too. I HOPE it doesn't rain that afternoon!
How did it get to be Thursday again, by the way? These weeks are going by so quickly. Hope you all have a good day!! :)

Ramblings

I had to drag myself out of bed this morning. Why does it seem the earlier I go to bed, the sleepier I am in the morning? One of the mysteries of life, I guess. :)
Nothing, absolutely nothing of interest happened yesterday. Kim and I did decide that we were going to try to join the Wellness Center sometime later this week. We're going to be buff! haha

The revival at church started last night, but honestly - and I hate to admit this- I forgot about it. And by the time I got home, it was time to be there. Which would've been fine if I'd been prepared (and remembered). So I'm going to try to go tonight. I like revivals; they're usually fun and they lift your spirits. You leave feeling renewed. I got saved at a revival, in fact. And usually when we have revivals at our church, our guest songleader is this larger than life, wonderfully sweet and happy-faced man from another local church named Brother Rob. He is just the cutest, sweetest, roundest man you'd ever see. His face just shines and beams, and you can tell just by looking at him that God is in his life, fully and completely. He was there when I got saved that night (about a year and a half ago) and after the service, he said, "Hey Sister!" which I thought was very cool. :) Anyhoo, I'm not sure if Bro. Rob is going to be here this week or not. I've thought about visiting his church just to see him in action and get some of that positive energy that shines through him! I haven't yet though. He's a model of where I'd like to be in my faith. It's so refreshing to be around people like him.

The RR Festival is this weekend! I love the RR Festival! :) Does anyone know what the weather is supposed to be like? I haven't looked yet. We're also going to visit Jessie's family Saturday...which is good, cause we haven't been out there in a while...its just the drive. About a 2 hour drive there and another one back home. I think we're planning to head out Sat. morning and come back Sat. afternoon or evening for the Festival. So it'll be a busy Saturday (what else is new?).

Ok, I went and stood by Laura a minute ago, who is eating some pizza, and now my stomach is churning with hunger. From one whiff of a pizza! I'm very easily influenced, huh? :)
Must...go...eat....

Sigh...It's always hard to come back to work after a holiday, isn't it? Especially a fun one where you get to be outside and with your crazy family!

We had a good Easter. Saturday we had the children's Easter party at church...actually, it was at Julia's house. But she read them the Easter story and asked them questions afterward to see if they understood. Then they played an egg relay race and had an Easter egg hunt. It was so cute. They had fun. And we saw that 6 years olds can be very competitive when it comes to finding eggs. :)

Saturday evening we dyed our Easter eggs. The kids loved that. I boiled a dozen thinking that would be enough, but they had them done in a matter of minutes! They were so into it, pausing only to fight over the one sheet of stickers that came with the box. I started dipping the egg in with my hand to get one half of an egg one color and the other half another color and subsequently dyed my fingertips and fingernails. It looked very cute in church the next day! haha

Ta da! Some of our lovely handiwork

Sunday was church day. We ended up having a lot of guests at church! I was proud that my family filled up almost two pews! My mom and Chuck, Kim, Jerry, Becca and Leia, and Katy and Zora all came. Seth and Lily were oh so cute in their Easter attire. Actually, we had to run to Walmart at 9:00 the night before because we realized Seth's dress pants didn't fit him (he usually wears jeans or khaki-type pants), so with that crisis averted, he was a sharp-dressed man on Easter morning. Here's Mr. Trump, now, at a business meeting:

You're fired!

Lol isn't that adorable? Jessie took that picture and said he was at a business meeting. While I was helping him get dressed, I kept calling him Mistah Trump and told him I was his personal assisstant. I couldn't tell if he thought it was funny or if he just wished I'd shut up and straighten his clip-on tie. haha He was so cute though!

And Princess Lily:

I wish that was a better picture! You can't see her dress, but she looked very pretty, take my word for it. She was twirling in her dress...it doesn't take much to make her feel beautiful!

We went to church and the choir sang the Easter Cantata...while poor Becca and Leia suffered through it. I heard from Jessie after church that they were writing notes during church and one of them wrote "This is torturous" and the other one wrote, "Oh well, at least we look pretty" When he told me that after church I was SO MAD, I thought I was going to beat them. I glared at Becca when we arrived to the picnic area and she looked startled and asked why I was looking at her that way. I said, "I'm sorry the singing was SO torturous for you, but at least you looked pretty!" She said, "Oh it wasn't YOUR singing, it was blah blah blah..." Anyway, she's lucky I AM a Christian...I forgave her....but made her promise to please be respectful in church and act like a decent human being (they were also rude to people who shook their hands, I was told)...TEENAGERS!!!!

One flight of the many treacherous flights of stairs on the nature trail...if you look closely you can see my fit mother gliding up them effortlessly...haha!

Other than that, the day was great. Jessie and Jerry grilled hamburgers...delicious. We walked down the nature trail...twice!!...and my legs actually didn't wobble like jello when we were done! Its amazing how your muscles can get used to things so quickly...the nature trail ends on a pier overlooking the water. It was beautiful. The whole day was gorgeous, a little chilly, but gorgeous. Seth and Lily hunted Easter eggs, then wanted to hide them for us. So Kim and I were going to hunt them. haha Someone asked me what we were doing and I said, "Me and Egg are going to hunt..." HAHA I called Kim "Egg!" I guess if I'd finished the sentence I would've said, "Me and Egg are going to hunt Kims!" heehee

So here we are...the Monday after the holiday. The kids are still off school, but the Moms and Dads are back at work. Doesn't seem fair, does it? I hope everyone had a great Easter. :)

Our Wednesday: Nature Trails, Library Tours and more

We had a pretty busy Wednesday yesterday. Well, we had a good Tuesday night too. We went to Pizza Hut (kids eat free Tues. night!) and ate their buffet. Oh...deliciousness. Then we went to the Railroad park and played around for a little while. It looks all spiffed up for the RR Festival, and the fountain is back on, so that's really pretty. I took pictures...

Seth pauses from his fishing (for leaves) for a quick picture to appease his Mama

I wish the pictures were a little better quality, but oh well...you get the picture (no pun intended). The fountain looks really pretty all lit up.

So Wednesday...Kim had to run her car up to Columbus to the car place...so I had to follow her in my truck and then we came back to Aberdeen. We were on our way to the library when Kim got a call from a "long lost relation" who turned out to be Datwin! He was in town for work, so we met him at McDonalds and had a nice conversation with him. We oohed and aahed over his company vehicle, which was very nice, and Lily ran around collecting leaves (and then rocks). So it was very good to see him! An unexpected uncle visit on a weekday!

After we parted, Kim, Lily and I ate at McDonalds...then headed for Blue Bluff (a picnic area by the Tombigbee) and walked down a nature trail...with 500 billion steps (yes, this nature trail had steps)...and an incline (or decline? it went down) which led to a pier overlooking the water. It was SO pretty. Then...we had to go back up. Oh...my...gosh. I did not think I was going to make it back up all those stairs. My muscles are aching like you would not believe today. Lily bounded up the stairs with ease, while Kim and I -literally- huffed and puffed and dragged ourselves along!

Going down. The easy part...(Kim and Lily)

Yay! We made it!

After we made it back up, we had a much-needed rest and Lily played on the playground for a while...the very sandy (and damp) playground, fun for getting your feet really dirty, which Lily did...

Then we went to the Aberdeen library. They have a really cute children's section there. Its small but really cozy with little armchairs and a huge rug with a dragon and a little castle too! Lily had a ball and demanded that Kim and I each read her a book while she sat inside the castle. The book I read was this really weird book about March, April and May being the daughters of Mother Earth and they kept fighting...weird.

The story castle

You can't see Lily very well there, but at least you can see the castle. They had a "free book table" there, also...free books! I ended up, very embarassingly, getting about four or five of them. I had this huge stack when I came out of the room. What a nice library! haha

We messed around in Aberdeen for a little while, waiting for the car place to call us back, so we went to Kim's and rode bikes up and down her street, then headed back to Columbus. There, we decided to go to the Columbus library. It was BIG. Not as big as the Tupelo library, but big nonetheless. The whole top floor was the children's section. They had this awesome storytime room filled with dolls and puppets and old books...a little fireplace with chairs on either side, and a beautiful rug on the floor. It was very cozy. Lily just ran around and reveled in it all. I tried to take pics there but my phone was being weird and wouldn't let me. I started thinking about our little children's section at our library, and how we have to fight for our storytime space sometimes...(sometimes mean old biddies come and get mad because we sit in front of the "new book" section...and they loudly interrupt us and make an idiotic display of themselves! Ok, I've said too much now)...Anyway, it was very nice.

By the time we'd gotten gotten the car and I got home, I was exhausted. I went to bed BEFORE 9:30 last night! That's unheard of for me! haha I'm really excited to have tomorrow off. Kim wants me to come with her, Becca and Leia to pick out Easter dresses, but I have GOT to clean my house! It has fallen by the wayside this week. I was thinking last night about how wonderful it would be to have a cleaning service come and get it looking shipshape in a few short hours. I don't think I'd want them going through my stuff though. Still..it'd be nice, wouldn't it?

I hope everybody has a great Easter!

Seth's play

Seth's play is coming up...it's on April 20 at 8:30 a.m., for anyone who wanted to know. :) I think Mom is coming. It'll be so cute! I think it's called a Mother Goose Review. Seth is going to be an Indian...singing 10 Little, 9 Little, 8 Little Indians...

I have to get a video camera. Let me rephrase that. I need to "borrow" a video camera. They'll have videos you can purchase...for $20! They're crazy! Anyway...want to see more pictures?

Here's beautiful Becca...with her unique fashion sense....

I can't get my hair to spike!

That's what she said to me this morning. "I can't get my hair the way I want it!"

"Well, how do you want it?" I ask.

"Spikey!"

Oh, in the background, and I'm so pleased about this, you can see my ugly wallpaper. Everytime I say something to Jessie about changing it, he's like, "Why waste our time and money? We're not going to be here very much longer!"

And we've been there how many years? Almost 6? haha

Pictures!

Could it be? Have I figured out the secret? I hope so! I think I may now be able to post pictures!

Here's a great one to start out with.

Poor Sethie!

Haha I love that! I have these nifty little "frames" on my phone. I have to put the one of Lily too. Its too cute.

Cute little lip...her hair is wild! She looks like a caged jungle woman!

Well, that is fun. I hope they won't disappear like the others did!

The point of excitement this week is that we get Friday off! :) And Easter is Sunday. I can't believe its already reached this time of year. But I already bought the kids' Easter goodies, and Saturday we have an Easter party at church at Mrs. Julia's house (piano player at church). I wish it would be warmer, I think the temp is going to be in the mid to high 50's. :( Hopefully it'll at least be sunny this weekend. Then Seth is out of school Monday (for Good Monday?) and the following Friday (for staff development? or b/c of the Railroad Festival? hmm)

And THEN he's also out on a Friday 2 weeks later...and - dum dum dum - we have to register Lily for kindergarten that day. AUGH! Not my baby! My littlest baby! I may cry. But I said that when I had to take Seth and I didn't...but I still think I may.

I'm not ready for this!

I guess I have to resign to the fact that I cannot post pictures. I'm very sad! A whole element could've been added to this blog! It needs some spicing up! Alas, I guess it will stay un-spicy for now, as I cannot seem to get the pictures to show up. Oh well.

"Now I...had...the time of my life....oooh!"

I don't know why that song is in my head this morning. But I did have a fun weekend. Saturday, Kim, Zora, Katy, Leia and Zora's step-daughter, Amber and I all piled into Zora's van and drove up to Columbus to find Katy a prom dress. Suprisingly we found one that Katy loved at the first store we came to. A consignment shop called Ritzy Rags. And Katy looked like Tinkerbell in the dress she picked.

Doesn't she look beautiful? Poor Katy, while she was changing in and out of her dress, the very hyper saleslady kept poking her head in and going, "Oh to have a tiny body like that, she is so cute, is everything going alright?" Katy was too enraptured in her dress to mind too much though.

We met up with Amber and Noelle a little while later. We went to a bunch of yard sales then met Amber at the mall. I tried to post more pictures but they keep messing up, so maybe one picture per post is all I'm going to get for now! Until I figure this thing out anyway! I LOVE my new phone. I kept taking pictures and driving everyone crazy Saturday. We had a lot of fun though. We ate at Backyard Burger for lunch, where I cheated mercilessly on my diet, eating chicken strips and fries (they were delicious) and then ended up eating most of Noelle's chicken strips (she didn't want them). And then Amber called me after she and Noelle had headed home and Noelle had thrown up three times!!! Poor Noelle (and poor Amber)! So, no wonder she didn't eat her chicken strips.

I'll try to post more pictures soon, as I've gone picture crazy, as soon as I figure out how to post more than one without the rest disappearing!