Puzzlemania!

Katie's new obsession is puzzles! She'll do them over & over and is really getting pretty good. I mean, she still needs help but she's getting better!

This is her "Jopheph" puzzle! LOL

Last night was "Family Enrichment Night" at Gracie's school. It's over for another year: yea!!! A lot of planning went into this event: a lot of phone calls, some emails, some snail mail, etc. It turned out really well! One of the teacher reps for the PTA handled A LOT of the event, specifically things on the actual night and she is organized with a capital "O." She had teachers assigned to each class to take attendance and be a general helper. She had "floater" teachers on the sidewalks to help direct people, she had large signs directing people.

We offered classes in mural painting, pottery making (the one we went to!), gymnastics, karate, scrapbooking, magic & Mary Kay. We had just a tad over 200 students signed up to come and I'm anxious to see what our actual number was. I know the class Gracie & I were in was just missing 1 student! The event is designed for each student to come with a parent (or other adult). In fact, they have to have an adult with them or they can't come. Thus, the "family enrichment" title...spending time child & parent together.......

I'm glad all the presenters I lined up showed up! Last year, I had one cancel about a week beforehand and that was stressful, but this year everyone showed up! I had one call me about an hour & a half before it started last night. When I saw her name on the caller id, I panicked thinking what in the world was I going to do with the 41 students signed up for GYMNASTICS class if she was cancelling! Especially since I can't even do a decent somersault myself!!!!!! She just had a question though and all was good!

I'm thankful to God that the event seemed to turn out well. I'm also thankful to our PTA teacher rep and our PTA President for all the support, encouragement, time & effort they put into this to help make it happen!

happenings

this week:

*playgroup~Thursday

*breakfast with a friend & shopping~Friday

*'family night'~Friday. I guess every night is family night to some extent, but I really love nights when none of us has to be anywhere but with each other and we can all just hang out. Chris came home from work and promptly fell asleep on the couch. This may not seem like a big deal, but if Chris takes a nap he will be up 'til the wee hours of the morning. Regardless of this fact, he napped anyway and was up 'til around 3 this morning. Oh well, his decision. When he & Katie woke up from their naps, we decided to go to Pizza Hut. Gracie had a 'Book-it coupon' that was burning a hole in her pocket. When we got there and someone finally got around to seating us, they told us that there was about a 40 minute wait for food. We decided to go somewhere else. We ended up at Chili's which we hadn't been to in a long time. After we ate, we went to the mall and visited just a few stores before it closed. I don't think we even bought anything, but it was still fun. Chris has in mind that he wants a flat screen plasma so he was showing me his "dream." He did receive 'official' word of a bonus so we'll see. We came home and Gracie wanted to play a family game so we decided to play Monopoly. She did pretty good and was getting pretty rich before we decided to stop. That game can last forever. Poor Katie spent most of our game time on the floor saying in sing-song, "please help me, please help me" as she worked on her Elmo puzzle. She's not quite ready for Monopoly! The night ended with Chris watching tv, the girls asleep in the Princess tent and me sleeping. Sounds like a good night to me!

*teachers' meeting at church~Saturday morning. Chris is 'ministry leader' for education and he, along with some other leaders, talked about various things within the education ministry. We have all been so impressed with the kids & their parents as we've started pushing for more scripture memorization. The parents have done a great job of encouraging their children and the kids are 'steppin' up to the plate' big time. This past week I gave my 1st/2nd grade class the task of memorizing the names of the 12 sons of Jacob and Gracie has done fantastic with it! I talked to one of the other girls this morning and she was saying them as well. I bribed them with candy and I will need to be ready to deliver in the morning! Even the 4 & 5 year old/Kindergarten class has been given this assignment from their teacher and I heard one of them saying it today also. Kids are such sponges, it's amazing! Tomorrow I plan to give the assignment of memorizing the books of the Bible...without singing them! I have complete faith that with a little work, they'll succeed!

One thing I've started doing in class that I think is a lot of fun is using "Veggie Tales Bible Mania" book to teach the kids interesting, "random" facts from the Bible. I put up a bulletin board in the hallway where each week they each write down one of the facts they found most interesting. It's really a neat book filled with some things I certainly didn't know about the Bible!

*shopping-Saturday afternoon. All 4 of us went to a neighboring town this afternoon to shop. We went to Family Christian and Lifeway Christian and perused the VBS curriculum selections. We picked up some brochures and will do a little more research before we decide what to purchase. We may even end up buying one from somewhere else. I love going to those stores; such neat things!

We also went to the mall to use some gift cards we'd been given for Christmas. I bought a "date dress." Chris & I plan to go out for Valentine's Day (either the weekend before or the weekend after) and I wanted a nice outfit. Something I wouldn't wear to church. I am quite modest in my dress (some might say I'm a fuddy duddy in my dress!!!!) so some things I just can't see myself wearing. Not that they're "immodest," I just don't like the way they look on me. (Some things are immodest for sure!!!!!) I found a dress that is different from what I would wear to church but still modest for a date with my husband. I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't have a gift card, so it was nice to splurge with that. (I also bought Gracie a pair of shoes with it.) I told Chris now we really have to go out and that I'd wear this dress for every fancy date we go on for the next couple of years (which happens about twice a year!) I just don't have that many "nicer" dresses.

Tomorrow will be church and Life Group. I hope everyone has a good Sunday!

Here's a funny thing Gracie said:
*She asked Chris if she has school on Valentine's Day. She had asked me earlier in the week what we were going to do special for Valentine's Day. I'm afraid she may be disappointed!

a funny from Katie:
*She tried to lick me the other day! I told her not to lick me. She said, "I just a puppy." Okay....

*After being with our niece Sara Jane and seeing how her daddy has brainwashed (LOL) her into liking football, Chris has started working more on Katie. (He knows it's pretty much useless with Gracie by this point!) She & I were at Kroger the other day and there was a huge football helmet hanging from the ceiling. Katie saw the helmet and I can't remember if she said 'hat' or 'football.' I kind of laughed; she then threw her arms up in the air and said very loudly, "Touchdown! Romo!" Thanks, Uncle Mike! (Dallas Cowboys fans will know who she was talking about.)

a funny from Chris:
*The other day I heard him singing a song in the other room. I said, "Are you singing (from) 'High School Musical'? He said no. I know he was lying!

Here's a sweet thing Katie's been doing lately:
*"Thank you Go-od, Thank you Go-od, for our food, for our food and our many blessings, and our many blessings. Ah-ah-men, Ah-ah-men. " Yes, God is 2 very distinct syllables and Amen is 3. I guess they say this prayer at MDO before eating lunch. Usually she says "yea" and claps when she's done. It's really quite cute! Chris has it on video from our camera. I'll have to see if he can get it on here on You Tube.

fresh new look

Here are our precious girls. Please excuse Gracie's non-matching pajamas. She gets that habit honestly from me...I want to be comfortable when I sleep but I don't so much care if I match!
Thanks to Kristen, I got the idea of getting a new template. I'd thought of it before, but when I saw her fresh, new, Spring-y template I decided it was time to make a change. I know it's only January, but having a Spring-y looking template still seemed like a good idea. I did what she said her husband did and googled "free blogger templates." I read the instructions (skimmed actually) and decided I could never figure it all out so I waited until MY husband got home and asked him to take on the project.

Good thing he'd already bought me flowers the day before because he fought with the thing for HOURS-literally. It still didn't do everything we wanted it to, BUT I still like it. Thank you Chris for fixing it!!!! At one point, I thought we'd lost the whole blog because it wouldn't open up. At that point, I retreated to watch my DVR'd 'American Idol.' I couldn't handle the stress! LOL

I may be changing my blog address soon too. I'll try to somehow let people know what it is.
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I went to Gracie's school this morning after taking Katie to Mother's Day Out. I read with a few of them and helped them take A.R. tests then hung out with Gracie at lunch for a little bit. I always end up opening up many milk cartons and such. I'm no good at opening the Capri Sun so I had to enlist the help of one of the other 1st graders for poor Matthew's drink. I have the hardest time with Capri Sun! Their 100th Day of School is Friday and I think Mrs. Stauffer has some fun things planned. I sent in chocolate chips for the trail mix they'll be making.
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I went to Target and browsed around for a few things and am now at home for a few moments of silence before picking up Katie. I am quite the homebody so I enjoy being here alone from time to time. Not something I'd want all the time but a few moments are good!

because he loves me

from my hubby...because he loves me! I love him too. Thank you, Honey!

yesterday

Tales from yesterday:

*took the van in for some repairs
*a friend picked me up and we headed over to the mall in a nearby town and did some girly shopping
*ate a little too much during the day (but it sure was fun!)
*picked up the van
*came home and picked up the house a little
*took Gracie to a birthday party
*met same friend from above & her family for dinner (not really hungry but of course ate anyway!)
*picked up Gracie from birthday party
*came home and same friends came over; let kids play and we watched Grey's Anatomy & The Apprentice that we'd taped on DVR (Yes, we do have satellite again-a family package-and DVR....man, I'm getting used to that!)
*Chris put up the princess tent for the girls to sleep in tonight

brrr

Yea! We got some of the Winter weather my Texas friends have been enjoying! Truthfully, it wasn't really a lot...just a little freezing rain and cold temps but it was enough that Gracie had a 3 hour delay for school today! I sure did enjoy sleeping late! Last week, I'd hit the jackpot at Old Navy getting around $140 worth of clothes for around $29! One of my bargains was this hat, scarf & mitten set. Each of them had been $9.50 and I got each of them for 1/2 off $1.98! Today was the perfect day for Gracie to wear them. I shudder to think how full of static her hair will be when she takes off the hat, but that's okay! (I actually got the sweater too....had been $29.50(?) and I got it for 1/2 off $9.99! I love a bargain!)I put some beef stew in the crock pot for tonight and am looking forward to having that warm dinner!
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Last week, Chris & Gracie experimented with one of her Christmas gifts she'd gotten from Gramme. It's called "Lab in a Bag" by 'Test Tube Wonders.' They had fun "making" snow and "making" a rainbow in a test tube. Gracie loved it and since Science is right up Chris' alley I think he loved it as well! It's hard to tell much from these pictures, but they did have fun and did some pretty cool things.
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I had to make a kinda hard decision about Gracie this week. She was invited to a birthday party/sleepover for a friend from church who also goes to her school, although she is in 2nd grade. When it came down to it, I was nervous about allowing her to spend the night since there would be 4 other girls there who I didn't know at all. I LOVE the parents of the little girl whose birthday it is and I was afraid of offending them, but her Mimi (actually it is her grandmother) was so nice about it and assured me-even before I made my decision-that she wouldn't be offended and would completely understand. Chris thought she would be fine-and she probably would have been-but I kind of felt like he wasn't sure either because of the other girls. I finally decided that we would take her to the birthday party Friday evening but would pick her up later that night and not have her spend the night. I was really torn because I trust the parents of the birthday girl and if it was just a sleepover with her I'd be probably be just fine (she has spent the night with us before); I just struggled because of not knowing the other girls and I think Gracie would have been the youngest one-except for the little sister (the birthday girl will be 8.)

Part of me feels like I'm being way overprotective and part of me feels good about it. The birthday girl's Mimi called me last night (I'd left a message on her machine) and said she could tell I sounded worried and figured she'd better call me. I was glad she did! She was very supportive and said I needed to feel comfortable and really sounded like she understood. She said the birthday girl was okay with it too and was just glad Gracie would be coming to the party at all. Gracie was okay with it too. She pouted for just a few minutes but didn't pitch a fit or anything (she didn't know any of the other girls either). Chris was very supportive of me. He said he feels like she would have been fine but understands how I feel and was fine with my decision. I feel I may overindulge her a little to make myself feel better about not letting her stay overnight. They are supposed to wear princess dresses to the party so I did get her one of those at Target today because she really didn't have one. (Overindulgence #1!) LOL I told her we would set up her Princess tent for her & Katie to sleep in tomorrow night, too.

I feel like I really try not to be TOO overprotective of her while still protecting her as much as I should. I'm not sure if that makes sense. It's a really fine line. I think we all have our "things." Some of us send our children to public school while others would never consider it. Some people watch certain television shows that others would never consider allowing their children to watch. Some put their children in daycare while others prefer staying home with them. We all have our "issues" we prefer to stand up for over other issues. I just hope we're all supportive of each other. I know I've talked with friends before who talk about things they wouldn't allow their children to do and I think it would be no big deal but then I may not allow my children to do something that they think is no big deal. We all just have to parent they way we feel is best and pray A LOT!
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On a lighter note: check out this YouTube video on Deana's blog. Too hilarious and I'm afraid it hits a little too close to home for me!

How did this happen?

So how is it possible that a simple cup of milk can end up on the floor, on her clothes AND in her hair?!?! Seriously, it's frustrating! She was dressed for Mother's Day Out. All she lacked was her socks & shoes; hair was even done; lunch was packed. I was going to sit and enjoy my breakfast without needing to rush to get her ready-we had about 30 minutes before we needed to go. She asked for a cup of milk. I gave it to her. She asked me if I was going to give her a top but I said no. We've pretty much stopped with the sippy cup and have gone to a regular cup. She generally does well. All of a sudden I heard the unmistakable sound of spilling milk and then I heard her. It was IN HER HAIR! How does that happen? I had told her to go sit at the table. Instead of putting it on the table and then climbing up in the chair, apparently she decided to climb while holding the cup of milk! She said she bumped her head on the chair. So.....I ended up changing her clothes because they were quite wet. The hair I left sticky I will admit. I might have had time to wash it, but it was cutting it close and honestly, I wanted to eat breakfast. I told her teacher not to think I was a bad mom if she noticed the sticky hair. I had put a hat on her also because it's actually quite cold today so when they take that off, her hair's gonna look crazy anyway! *sigh*
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Gracie got her report card yesterday. We are so proud of our little girl! 100 in Spelling, 100 in Reading, 98 in Math, A in conduct; "S's" in all other areas! I just love the attitude she has about her schoolwork too. She loves doing it! She was struggling a little bit with telling time and money, so she told me so I could help her and she's improved so much! We've been focusing on the money and she has come so far in just a few weeks. She was really struggling with getting it to "click" in her mind....the counting of the coins. She knew how to count by 5's and how to count by 10's and all that but applying it to nickels and dimes was just kind of like a roadblock to her. I always struggled with math so I really felt her frustration. I bought her this money set and she's really enjoyed using it. It helps her immensely to use this "real" money and now she is doing great! I can tell she feels much more confident now. I really think she was just timid about it and not sure and now that she's been successful she is feeling better about it.
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The Family Enrichment Night at Gracie's school is the 30th and I've been busy helping to plan it. Our PTA President is so wonderful about doing a lot for most of our activities and one of the teachers will be doing a ton of work for it. I'll be glad when it's over but it's coming along!

sisters forever

Dear Lord,

Thank you for these girls and the blessing they are to me!

I'm so glad they each have a sister in each other. May they always

enjoy the simple things in life, like playing "Dora" together.

Please help them to grow in a way that is pleasing to You!

In Jesus' Name, Amen

back to normal-whatever that means

I'm getting tired of looking at the title of my last post, so I'm going to add a new one although I don't have a whole lot to say. It's been good to be back home and try to get back into the swing of things. Everything still isn't put away exactly where it should be but I don't see that ever happening! Here's a rundown since my last post:

*skipped out volunteering at Gracie's school this week and spent Katie's Mother's Day Out time going to the grocery instead-we had pretty much NO food in the house after being gone for so long
*made calls etc. regarding the 'Family Enrichment Night' I'm coordinating for Gracie's school-a little hectic and overwhelming, but it will get done
*dentist appointment
*church
*playgroup, but I found out while there that I had a huge bolt in my tire so I left to go have it repaired and was able to go back to playgroup to eat lunch
*started thinking about VBS which I get (lol) to coordinate this year
*Chris had some good things happen at work!
*used some Christmas money to buy some roman shades for the den windows-we've been in this house almost 5 years and have never had anything on those windows! Now I want to paint the trim.......correction! I want to pay someone else to paint it!
*took the car in to have something repaired/replaced (I really don't know) but the cost was covered by Honda so that was good; found out something else needs to replaced which isn't covered but it's not too terribly bad so I'm okay with it; it'll be better to have this minor thing done now rather than ignore it and it possibly turn into something much bigger and more costly
*went to the library and stocked up on books and took a "rainy day nap"
*went to the park & McDonald's with some friends today
*went shopping with a friend after that-with no kids!
*had some other friends over tonight to play Cranium's Family Fun-it is a lot of fun!
*got a hilarious look at how Gracie would look as Superman-she put on this funny Superman shirt her friend had-it blows up kind of like a balloon-it was so funny seeing her with it on!

I hope everyone had a good week!

tales from I-20

Here we go! This is my attempt at posting about our 2 week trip without taking 2 weeks to write it!

Friday, 12/15
driving time this day: approx. 3 hours
*field trip walking across the street to the high school to hear "holiday music" with Gracie's class; notice Gracie doesn't seem to feel well
*last minute packing
*back to the school for Gracie's Christmas party; (Mrs. Stauffer would probably not be happy if she knew I'd put up this picture of her with the Christmas bow around her head!) continue to notice Gracie doesn't feel well and feels warm also
*leave for Mom & Dad's in Atlanta despite the fact that Gracie is now obviously sick
*have good dinner & Christmas present time with Grammer & Pappy; Gracie feels better, now Katie is warm
*get to bed rather early since we have an early departure time planned

Saturday, 12/16
driving time this day: approx. 16 hours
*get up & leave at 4:45 am ET; both girls feeling warm and not feeling too well-still in pj's
*stop a couple of hours later and change the girls and take potty break
*stop in MS (or was it LA) somewhere for lunch; both girls don't eat and lay in lethargy on the booth at Wendy's
*make the sad decision to call our friends (in Van Alystyne, TX) whom we haven't seen in years and cancel staying with them that night due to the girls' fever & sickness-this was so sad for us because we had been looking SO forward to seeing them, neither of them have ever met Katie and he hasn't ever even met Gracie, but there was no way we wanted to stay with them with the girls both being so sick at this point
*FINALLY get to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and FINALLY find a hotel after my husband decides it'd be fun to try a few different interstates in the area!
*eat dinner, bathe, relax a little and get the girls in bed where they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow!
*look foward to seeing my cousin the next day whom I haven't seen in over 3 years!

Sunday, 12/17
driving time this day: approx. 3 hours
*take it easy that morning trying to recuperate from the drive the day before; girls are feeling better but run fever a little during the day
*find out that plans to meet my cousin have fallen through; I am very disappointed
*hit the road for Abilene
*call information to get Jetty Betty's phone number to see if we could meet; she called back after we were already in Abilene
*get to Abilene hungry for some good Mexican food and go to Rosa's~YUM! We didn't actually have this in Abilene when we were there, we had it when we lived in Lubbock and we LOVED it! Needless to say, we stuffed ourselves!
*took the girls to the ad building at ACU where Chris & I got engaged
*went to the home of a sweet friend of Chris' family who is kind of like a grandmother to him and stayed the night with her; went to church that night, all day Katie had been asking to go to church; we'd had "family church" in the hotel room that morning but she wanted to go to church.
*drove around looking at Christmas lights; walked around ACU some more showing it to the girls and trying to explain it all to Gracie; there's just really no way to explain ACU and the whole experience to someone who hasn't attended there as a student; people don't typically choose ACU for the buildings or location but for the people-during a holiday there aren't too many of them around, so I'm not sure she "got" what we were trying to explain to her; of course, that could also have something to do with the fact that she's only 6 years old! LOL
*went back to the house and visited a little before going to bed

Monday, 12/18
total driving time for this day: approx. 7 hours
*girls appear to be better; I can't remember which day it was that the fever blisters appeared but before all was said & done, Gracie had 2 huge ones and Katie had 1 that scabbed horribly below her lip; Gracie also ends up with a horribly scabbed up, blistered nose
*get to NM before Gramme is out of school so we stop by; being the small school that it is, the principal himself invites us to interrupt & disrupt as much as we want to in her class; Gracie of course stays with Gramme to finish out the day, as a matter of fact she attended the next 2 days of school as a student in Gramme's class! She loved "being a 2nd grader" for 2 days!
*begin to relax now that we're there, although I'm concerned about the fever blisters and Gracie's nose.......

Tuesday, 12/19
total driving time for this day: NONE! I didn't get in the car the whole day!
*hung out at the house; Chris & his parents were supposed to go to Albuquerque for an appointment, but snow conditions prompted them to stay home

Wednesday, 12/20
*Gracie went to school with Gramme (2 hour delay due to snow!)
*Gramps, Chris, Katie & I went to Ruidoso shopping
*fun to see snow but I'd rather watch it through the window than actually be out in it!
*hung out

Thursday, 12/21
*Gracie went to school with Gramme
*Chris, Katie & I went shopping in their little town (it seriously took about an hour...it's a really small town....no stoplight, about 1300 people!)
*visited the school then went back after Katie's nap for the Christmas party

Friday, 12/22
*visited the Smokey Bear Park and museum; took lots of pictures for Gracie to share with her class (he'd visited their class earlier this year!)
*left the girls with Gramps & Gramme while Chris & I went back to Ruidoso to do a little more shopping
*Mike, Erin & Sara Jane arrive! I was glad the girls got to spend time with their cute-as-a-button cousin, Sara Jane-and with their aunt & uncle, too!
*Gramme makes her good New Mexico flat enchiladas with a fried egg on top~YUM!
*the fever blisters & nose are looking really bad by this time; I felt bad with Sara Jane being there but I wasn't sure what to do.....they hadn't had the blisters when we left home, just the fever and for all I knew at that time, it was a 12 hour virus! I didn't know it would keep lasting! ugh!

Saturday, 12/23
*all of us went back to Ruidoso for more shopping; I picked up something for Chris that he'd pointed out the day before
*ate out for lunch; sent the guys home with the kids; Gramme, Erin & I did a little more shopping by ourselves
*left the kids with Gramps & Gramme while Mike, Erin, Chris & I went out for good Mexican food (in Ruidoso again) and to see "Night at the Museum."

Sunday, 12/24
*church where Mike & Chris shared leading singing
*good lunch and naps for the little girls while Gracie got to help Erin & I bake a cake
*did a little gift opening that evening

Monday, 12/25
Merry Christmas!We actually had to wake the girls up!
*oh, wait! Chris was up with chills & fever during the night and now feels horrible! GREAT!
*enjoyed opening gifts despite being worried about Chris
*Nana, Papaw (Chris' wonderful grandparents), Jerry & Cheryl (his so sweet aunt & uncle) and his cousin Jeremy come for the day for Christmas dinner. We visited throughout the day, Chris spent much of it asleep on the couch because he felt awful! When I told him to wake up because the Cowboys were on and he barely stirred, I knew things were bad! He did get up for it but was halfheartedly watching. Of course, from what I understand it was a horrible game anyway. (I played Phase 10....I don't like football!)
*went out to find some Sprite & Gatorade for Chris that evening....small town, remember????? NOTHING is open...not even the 1 gas station! Good thing Gramme is a teacher; we got some Sprite out of the teacher's lounge.

Tuesday, 12/26
*Mike, Erin & Sara Jane leave early.
*Gracie's poor nose is still horribly blistered and the poor thing could literally hardly breathe! She seemed to feel okay except for not being able to breathe. Chris was feeling better but still not great. Gramme found out the little clinic in town was open and would see us so I took the 2 of them in.
*Chris' diagnosis: strep! She said it wasn't all the way there yet but just about (they did that rapid test thing). At first, she thought maybe Gracie had hand, foot & mouth because she'd had a blister on her finger and Katie had one on her knee but then she said she thinks Gracie & Katie had strep when we first left then gave it Chris and that the blisters on Gracie's nose were impetigo! She asked how I felt and I was okay but had a headache and my throat was a little swollen so she went ahead and wrote prescriptions for all 4 of us!
*had to go to Ruidoso (about 30 minutes) again because there is no pharmacy in their little town, so we all went to get the meds and ate Mexican food again; by the time we got back home I was feeling pretty bad so I crashed in bed!
*woke up and started packing the car; relaxed in bed that night watching mindless t.v. in one room while everyone else watched football in the other room
*emailed Jetty Betty about possibly meeting for breakfast Thursday morning

Wednesday, 12/27
total driving time this day: approx. 9 hours
*got up, felt okay, went ahead & left and drove to Ft. Worth
*talked to our friends again and told them we'd better not stay with them yet again because of the recent strep developments; we'd been on the antibiotic 24 hours by then, but they have 2 young children and 1 on the way so we felt we'd better play it safe
*talked with Jetty Betty and made plans to eat breakfast with her! I figured since she didn't have young children and we'd only be eating across the table from her that it'd be safe
*got to Ft. Worth, relaxed, ate, slept What fun the girls had staying in hotels!

Thursday, 12/28
total driving time this day: approx 8 hours
*met Betty for breakfast along with Critter! So great to meet them and we had a wonderful time! I loved it!
*left Ft. Worth, drove to Jackson, MS eating a late lunch at Cracker Barrel somewhere in LA
*got a hotel, relaxed, slept

Friday, 12/29
total driving time this day: approx. 7 hours
*left MS and kept heading East; girls' blisters are already looking much better...partly due to the meds and partly due to leaving the dryness of NM I think
*finally get to Atlanta~Yippee!
*decide to make one more stop and stay with Grammer & Pappy; after all, Grammer will cook for us!
*relaxed

Saturday, 12/30
total driving time for this day: approx. 3 hours
*left Atl. around 10:30
*get home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*took a nap worthy of a Sunday afternoon!
*a very sweet friend brought us dinner that evening since she knew we wouldn't have anything in the house and were kind of tired of eating out

Sunday, another sweet friend had us over for lunch after church. It made me feel good to have such considerate friends! Slept after church; went back that night; got take out and came home to have a relaxing New Year's Eve watching a movie and not doing much of anything! Monday, we took down most of the Christmas stuff and Gracie & I went to see "Charlotte's Web." I loved it! Today, I've continued trying to put everything away. Things are looking better but there's still stuff to do....as always!

It was a good trip; I wish we hadn't been sick and I felt so bad for the girls because I know the blisters couldn't have felt good! (I know they didn't look good, poor things!) I loved finding out that Nana reads my blog and enjoys it! It's amazing that way out on the sheep ranch in the little rock house, she can sit and read about what is going on with our girls waaaaay over in South Carolina! I loved watching her & Papaw talking with the girls. Nana & Papaw may be Chris' grandparents but I think I probably love them just as much! I love watching how sweet & gentle Papaw is with Nana...reminds of my Shanks man. Chris is always thinking of me & the girls before himself and you can tell Papaw is the same way with Nana. I've always thought Chris & Papaw had similar personalities! Gramps & Gramme were great hosts and treated us well as always. The girls had such a good time playing with them and I'm glad they got to create those memories!

Now, it's time to get back to "normal."

p.s. Where are all the pictures of Gramps & Gramme?!?! I'm not sure! Next time I need to remember to take more!!!!!! This isn't my favorite picture by far, but it shows almost everyone from Christmas day, so I'll post it. (I couldn't get the red out of our eyes.)