Geez -- I'm a loser

So, you have no idea how many times a week I tell myself that I'm going to become a blogger...a fun one, like the ladies that I keep up with via the internet.  But, to be honest, like I've said before, I'm not totally sure on how to do all of this fun stuff.

1)  I'm not a huge picture taker.  I so wish upon a million stars that I was one of those mommies who carried around their camera on their necks and snapped beautiful pictures all day long, but, I'm not.  I have a little camera that is always in my purse, but, to be honest most of my pictures have been taken on my iPhone (gasp!).

2)  Really, I'm not that smart, funny or great.  Who in the world is really going to read my blog?

3) I want a super cute design and stuff, but have absolutely no idea how to do it. (Anyone out there wanting to help, let me know!)

But, I've decided that I'm gonna do it.  I'm really going to keep up with it this time (I know, your probably thinking, "yeah, we've heard this before.")  There are so many things that I want to keep up with and do, and so I'm gonna do it darnit!

Anyways, there have been a lot of things that we have been up to since October.  Of course the holidays, which were not too bad, but I had pneumonia.  I started feeling bad about two weeks before Christmas and went to the doctor (who happens to be my neighbor) and she said that I had bronchitis.  Well, about two days later I was feeling worse and by 5 days later I felt like death.  She sent me to the hospital for blood work and a chest xray because they thought that I might have a blood clot (holy hell, you have no idea, I was so stinking scared).  The test results came back the next day and said that my lungs were clear, but my blood work was indicative of a blood clot, so I then had to do to the hospital for a CT scan.  All good news though as they told me before I even left the hospital that I didn't have a blood clot, but I did have pneumomia that the chest xray had not picked up. So, I did a lot of laying around a resting, and ended up getting to spend the entire Christmas break with Scott and the kids (and totally depleting any vacation time and sick time that I have accrued at work).  It was nice to be off, but I will say that I NEVER want to have pneumonia again, and I'm hoping that it was the first and last time.

While I was off and everyone was home, Scott and I had noticed that Parker had been acting a little out of sorts.  We just kinda figured that it was because the both of us were home and his routine had been interrupted with being off of school.  But, then we noticed that he would run a really low grade fever one day and then the next nothing and then a couple of days later he would have a low grade fever again.  And, he looked terrible.  We took him to the doctor and they did some blood work, which came back positive for mono.  Mono...who in the world has my sweet little 6 year old been kissing! lol.  First off, I had no idea kids could even get mono when they were that young, but yep, it can happen and it did.  He came home that night from the doctors and slept from 3:00 - 9:30 the following day.  Then from that day on he seemed to be feeling pretty good.  Since he was getting ready to start basketball the pedi wanted to see him back just to make sure he was okay to play (they usually do not like them to play any sport for 4-6 weeks) but since we thought he had not been feeling well for a couple of weeks prior to his diagnosis, she thought he might be okay, which he was, so she cleared him to play and said that everything was good on the Mono front.  We had been home for maybe two hours and he started throwing up!  AWESOMENESS!!!  And, of course that was just two days shy of his big 6th birthday party sleepover and family party...and he got better pretty quick and made it through.  Then Beckett got it the night before the family party.  But, as they say, the party must go on (because mommy and daddy spent too much money on food, cake and supplies for it NOT to go on!).  All turned out well!

Parker during his birthday dinner at the mexican place...his favorite place ever!

Parker and his cousin Ty (left) and his best friend Daxton (right) before they went to see Monster Trucks

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Ty, Parker and Daxton at Monster Trucks (daddy went a litte crazy on them and the souvineirs while they were there!)



Parker getting ready to blow the candles out on his 6th birthday cake!

 Honestly, I still cannot believe he is 6....I do not even feel like it's possible for him to be so big.  Sometimes, when he is talking to me about something, I stop and just think of how quickly this is all going...it's just going way to fast for me!

So, as if our 2012 wasn't getting off to an already bad start, we found out that my dad had skin cancer...on his tongue.  Worst news ever, and news that I've always been afraid of hearing and dreading.  He had surgery a week later and they removed part of his tongue.  It actually turned out wonderfully as he is cancer free and did not have to have any kind of radiation or chemo, which he was very scared about.  He missed a couple of weeks of work and he was not very happy for the first week because he was on a liquid diet (and, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but my dad has a SUPER limited diet as it is.  He only eats the following foods:  french fries, bacon, peanut butter sandwhiches, some cereals, chips, popcorn and waffles.  I'm not joking, this is it.  He has never had a steak, never ate a Thanksgiving dinner...it's weird! lol).  But, once he got past the two week hump, he seems to be doing pretty good.  I'm just glad that he is so healthy otherwise (this was the first time he has ever had surgery in his entire 52 years).  But, he is doing fantastic now.  So many prayers were said for him and I just appreciated every single on of them.  Hopefully, we never have to hear that stupid "C" word again.

Since then we have been moving right along.  Parker was sick again a couple of weeks ago with some kind of virus, which sucked because all he did was run a fever, but he missed 3 1/2 days of school.  There has been some super nasty stuff going around this year, and I'm looking forward to warmer weather and not so many icky sicknesses.

This has also been the most unusual winter ever here.  We normally have very cold winters with a lot of snow.  This year...it's felt like mid-October almost the entire winter.  We've had very little snow (and no snow days for Scott and the kids) which is extremely rare.  LAst week at the beginning of the week the weathermen (who are known in these parts to be wrong most of the time) started talking about a round of stoms that were going to be coming through and they were going to be very bad.  Tornado's, high winds, hail.  Now, last year we spent a LOT of time in our basement because it seemed like every other night we were getting really bad storms and had tornado warnings non stop , I really didn't want to do it anymore and am not looking forward to a spring spent dragging my kids out of bed in the middle of the night and hauling them down to the basement.  So, all week long they had been talking about the storm and that we might be getting some fairly severe weather that day.  Well, Parker was sick again that whole week and on Friday, when it was day 4 of his fever, I took the day off to take him to the doctors and I'm glad that I did.  Schools let out early and canceled all of their Friday activities, people I knew got their kids out of school early.  I knew it was serious when Reed Timmer, the storm chaser was in our area...you know shit is going to go down when there is a storm chaser in the area.  And, boy oh boy did it ever! When Scott got home was right when they were giving out the first tornado warnings about an hour from us and heading in our direction.  We have a finished basement, but we have a walk out and the back half has a door and windows, so I mentioned to him that we might want to go to his parents house (which is just 5 minutes away and has a full basement completely underground).  He kinda looked at me funny and said, "but we have a basement" and I told him that I kinda liked our chances in his mom's basement a little better.  So, we packed up the kids and the dogs and headed to his moms house.  She was home, my sister in law was there with her two kids and my neice and nephew were there as well along with us and then my father in law came home (and they said he has NEVER come downstairs during a tornado warning and he came right in from work and headed straight downstairs with us, so I knew it was bad).  So, there was 5 adults, 6 kids and 4 dogs...fun times.  I called my sister who just moved into a new house to make sure she is okay.  She is like me and absolutely panics when there is a storm let alone a tornado warning.  She was freaking out of course, and I told her just to stay calm (I love how I can tell other people that but can't do it myself).  We watched the news and it was so scary because even the weathermen were giving those, "Ewww..this isn't good" (Which myself and my sister in law continuously made fun of because they did it so much it was cracking us up!  But, it was no joke.  My sister called crying hysterically saying that the tornado had gone over her house and done damage to her home (minor, but still so thankful!) and that the apartment complex acrossed the street from her was missing the whole second floor.  Her town was hit very hard, and was ours and the one by us.  We were so thankful to have made it out without a scratch, but there are so many people who did not.  People's lives were torn apart and many killed.  It's amazing what kind of damage Mother Nature can do.

The kids playing on the iPad during the warning (Tyler, Parker, Chloe and Beckett)

The big kid playing on the iPad (he tried to stay away from all of us and get a little bit of peace)

Tornado that hit my sisters neighborhood

So, there has been a lot of clean up work and a lot of fundraising going on in our town.  It is amazing to see so many people come together to help out their friends, family, neighbors and strangers!  Sometimes, it's good to live in a small town.

Alright...so who thinks this post is long enough!  I do!  My hands are hurting from typing, so I think we're gonna end this one for the day, but I PROMISE this time, I'm gonna keep up with it!

Have a good one!

Alisha

So, I know, you don't have to tell me...

So, I know I'm falling back into my old ways here with no blogging, but I've been super busy at work and super busy at home which equals no blogging time.  So, I promise to get back on here within the next couple of days to do a really good post and then to keep up with it....PROMISE!

Come as you are, as you were.....

So, 20 years ago, these guys right here:

Released this CD right here:

And changed the face of music and the way I look at music forever.

Music is super important to me and I don't know what it would be like if I didn't have music in my life.  Nirvana is one of my all-time favorite bands and Kurt Cobain is one of my favorite people who I really feel like if his soul had not been so lost, what an amazing group they would have evolved to be (even further past what they had already become in their short tenure).

I just bought the Nevermind Remasters Super Delux edition and I'm totally pumped to listen to it when I get in my car tonight (because I don't feel like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" would be appreciated by my co-workers!)  But, while I'am here I'm listening to Jon Stewart interview Dave Grohl (who I heart) and Dave Novoselic on XM (I had to renew like 2 weeks ago and that is the ONLY reason that I renewed!).

So, the other day I was sitting outside with my kids and the neighbor boys were listening to their iPod's.  I heard one of the oldest ones (who is 13) say, "OMG...this Kesha song is by far the best song yet!"  And, I'm not going to lie, it saddened my heart....Kesha!  Seriously!!!  I mean, it's okay to heart her every now and again on the radio, but, yikes, what is our youth coming to?!?!  Maybe I should give them a little education on what good music really is!  I know that one of my hopes for my own kids (besides being happy, healthy, smart, polite) is that they have the same love of music that I do and that music speaks to them the way it does to me...

Happy rockin everyone, have a good day!

You could say it's been a while.....

Hello there! (If there is anyone left who even would think about looking at my blog!).  Well, just like the title says, you can definitely say it's been a while.  I have not blogged in so long, but have kept up with a lot of blogs that I love and it makes me a bit jealous to read all of these wonderful ladies funny, caring, and tear jerking blogs.  I know that I wanted to get back into it, but I just have not gotten around to it.  Plus, to be honest, I don't know how to make my blog fun and fancy (hint:  if you know how, let me in on the goods!).  And, I just really don't think I'm all that funny and my life just isn't that interesting for others to want to keep up with me...or so I think. 

Well, what has my family been up to lately?  Well, I'm now working at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Critical Care.  I love my job and love this place.  We (all Northern KY/Greater Cincinnatians) are so lucky to have this resource right in our back yards.  What amazing things happen here!  I've been here for almost a year (next month) and hope that I remain working at this hospital until I retire!

Scott is still coaching baseball and is now teaching (at the high school now) and working on his second master's degree (in Education Administration).  We apparently like school in this house because guess what?  I'm back in school too.  I started over the summer at the University of Cincinnati in the Master of Health Administration program.  So far, it's going pretty good and it's been pretty manageable, but my second semester just started today and I have yet to look at the syllabus, so we'll see what I'm thinking by tonight.

Parker started Kindergarten!!!!!  Can you believe it??  Kindergarten.  I have no idea how in the world my baby is old enough to be in school already.  I just feel like it's all going entirely too fast and that before I know it I will be talking about his first day of high school.  He is doing really really good and I'm amazed at how much he has learned just over the past month.  He has really come so far (not that he was super far behind to begin with, I mean, c'mon...he's my kid so he is smarter than smart! lol).  He has some friends he knew before hand in his class, so that makes it all the better and although he asks me every night if he is off the next day things are running pretty smoothly (that is if you ignore the morning fights about socks, shoes and what pants he is doing to wear that day!).  He also lost his very first tooth the other night and the tooth fairy made her second appearance at our house.  (Why the first tooth and her second appearance?  Parker had to have a tooth pulled back in the spring, and the tooth fairy even makes collections and payouts for teeth that were pulled out.  To me, how could he help it, it was circumstances beyond his control!).



Now, Beckett....my sweet little Beckett.  He is getting ready to turn three in less than a month and I hate that he is growing up.  Three, almost three!  I can remember when Parker was three, and when he turned three (it was a Scooby Doo party).  He is doing all sorts of awesome stuff and talking up a storm.  He cracks us up (and everyone in the family and on the street).  We love him soo much, and right now he is getting super spoiled being the only grandchild with grandma all day long (all the older cousins are in school for the most part now).  His favorite place is Chuck-e-Cheese and he asks to go there on a daily basis "I go Chucheese - I shoot  ball, pay games!"  Last week he went twice!  (I must say that I absolutely despise this place because of all of the nasty germs floating around the place...ick)  But, he loves the place and then throws a major temper tantrum when we try to get him to leave, which drives me pretty bonkers.



He sleeps with his bat, glove and ball almost every night....you think he's gonna like ball?


Oh - and we also have a new puppy that we got last year right before Christmas.  His name is Jack and we rescued him from a shelter in Evansville, IN (yes, I drove over 3 hours to get a puppy).  He is supposed to be a labradoodle, but Scott and I are determined that they lied.  He's staying pretty small and he doesn't really resemble one.

Jack as a puppy - we got him 2 weeks before Christmas





Parker and Jack sleeping out a tornado warning in our basement

 

Jack loves toilet paper (and stuffed animals, down comforters, shoes, Oakley sunglasses, baseball gloves and wrestling figures)

And, Chompers...well, he's still being Chompers.

So, everyone is doing pretty fantastic if I do say so myself.  We are ending the summer and moving into fall, which I'm super excited about because it's my favorite time of the year.  It's been cool and rainy, which, call me weird, but I like that every once in a while.  I would like it a lot more if I could stay cuddled up in bed all day long, but, someone has to pay the bills!

So - I plan on sticking with the whole blogging this again....I like it and it does me good.  Plus, it's been really nice to look back and see all of the things I wrote like 2 years ago. 

Alright peeps....I'm out for the day.  Finishing up some work and heading to see one of my very best friends and her new baby Jack who are in from Nashville (so excited, although my baby fever is in high gear so I really shouldn't be around new babies right now!)



Wow....it's been a while!

I cannot believe that it's been so long since I've wrote something on here!!! I was just thinking about this this morning as I was getting ready for work.

Well, lots of things have been happening. I had a really nice four month break from work which was awesome. I loved spending every day with my kiddo's and getting to see everything with them, instead of hearing about it from my mother in law. I got a new job working at a university (which I will not mention names) working at a certain college in the university working for the Dean. I'm not going to mention names because to be honest, I hate this job and will bad mouth it repeatedly until I find a new job.

Beckett turned one years old on October 6th and we had a big party for his first birthday with family. Parker turned four (who the hell did that happen so fast) on January 10th and he had his first party with his friends (well, three friends, and the rest were cousins!). Scott and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary (woo hoo) and oh, yeah...Rachael had a baby.

Yes, you read that right. My sister had a baby. It's a long story. He was quite the surprise, but he is awesome! And, they are doing wonderful, which is all that ever matters right?!?!

Two more big things....I will finally be done with school on April 14th. That is my official last day of college (well, until I return to get my Master's) and graduation is May 1st. Not sure if I will be going to that because Scott has a game and isn't going to be able to make it, and if anyone is going to be there I really want him to be there.

Second....Saturday is my 30th birthday. Usually I'm really excited about birthday's, but not so much this year. I'm actually kind of depressed about turning 30. I feel like my twenties went entirely too fast and I didn't even realize it, and then I thought, "Oh my god, then I'll be 40 before I know it!" I love my life and I love where I'm at and wouldn't change any of it, but I would like to re-do my twenties just one more time.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants that.

Well, I'm sorry it's been so long, but I promise to get on here and keep everyone up to date more often. I will not disappear for 6 months this time!

So sad

Today is my last day at work. I'm a bit sad. I really love my job here and I really love all of the people that work here too. Everyone here is so nice and welcoming and hilarious. There are so many things that we joke about and play around about (Mike with his Nerf gun). I was very lucky to be a part of this wonderful group of people at this wonderful company. I'm going to hate to see everyone go, and I'm worried about everyone finding a job. This is a hard time to have to find a job. It's gonna be rough.

I'm sad. I'm nervous. I feel like I have a huge weight on my shoulders. I feel like I've let my kids and Scott down.

I've never NOT had a job. Since I was 16 years old. It's gonna be different. Different for sure.

It's a sad day. For a lot of us.

Goodbye to all of my friends. The laughs that we have had are priceless. I'm going to miss them greatly.

The Fair is in town! The Fair is in town!!!!

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for the Alexandria Fair...or the Worlds Fair for everyone who lives in Campbell Co.

Everyone here loves the fair. It's always Labor Day weekend and it's a great time to go and stand by the beer booth and see friends that you have not seen in years! I love it and look forward to it every year. It's just one of those things that you must go to each year! Good times.

Tonight is the opening night. We go to Jeremy and Shawns house (my cousins) because their house is right on the entrance of the fairgrounds and we watch the parade (yes..there is a parade!) and then we take the kids down to ride rides (well, Parker at least) and grab a bite to eat.

I love this time of year (and it also helps that it has been insanely beautfiful here for the past week, temps in the low 70's, cool every night and sunny sunny sunny!).

Yea for the Worlds Fair!

Laid off

Has today's economy affected your family? How you spend, if you go on vacation? Well, it wasn't really touching us much. Until now.

My company did their third round of layoff's on Tuesday. And, you guessed it...I was one of the not-so-lucky one's. I got the boot.

But, not just me. Last September they laid off 15 of my great co-workers. In June they laid of 2 of my co-workers and then on Tuesday, after a nice motivational e-mail from our president to ALL of our company telling us that they were beginning layoff's immediately, all but 8 of my co-workers were laid off on Tuesday morning.

It wasn't not an easy morning, let me tell ya. This is the third round of layoff's in just one year, so it's almost like everyone knows the deal. But, this time it was different. The first one last September was out of no where. So, it caught all of us off-guard and we had no idea how to take it. Then in June, same deal but it wasn't most of the department, only two people, so it was like a little smack in the face unlike a punch in the gut. Then, this one..was expected. We've all seen it coming for the past month or so, it was just a question of who, when and how bad. We knew that our particular site was in a nice downward spiral. Our projects had been cancelled and they sent out a new organizational structure chart a couple of weeks ago that conveniently left the our group here in Cincinnati out. So, that was clue number one. The a few short days later we got an e-mail saying that all of the projects that we had and were working on had been cancelled. Eww...punch number two. Then, they walked around and changed all of the locks on the doors (but said that they didn't know who had the previous locks and wanted to change them to keep track of who had what key...yea right). Then, came the e-mail at 3:30 on Monday afternoon that had ALL of us sitting in the middle of our department wondering if it was going to be that day. It wasn't. Our manager didn't even acknowledge it. So, all night Monday night I thought about it all night long, wondering if it was going to be me, or if was going to be the entire department or the entire building for that matter. Tuesday morning we came in and we had a meeting. They were disbanding the entire R&D department and only keeping 1/3 of the department and then getting rid of 2/3 of the department.

The morning sucked to be blunt. We all just sat around waiting. We quickly found out that they were meeting with the people that they were keeping first, and as the morning wore on, many of us figured it out that we were not the ones that they were keeping. They called all of us in (16 of us) and told us as a group (classy, huh?) that our positions have been eliminated and that September 25th was going to be our last day. They handed us our severance packets and sent us home.

We went to the bar.

And then to one of my co-workers house's and drank some more...and talked, vented and laughed. Rough day.

I'm not sure that it has hit me completely or not. I know that it has happened, but I think because we do have to come back here for a while that it just doesn't seem real. People are taking it how they are, and some of us are taking it okay and some of us are not taking it very well at all. It's hard for many because there are people who have been here for 30 years and this is the only job that they know and they are going to leave. And, there are people here that have their lively hoods resting on their jobs (cough cough...me) and it's sad. It's sad that a group that works so stinkin hard and get's along so well and could conquer anything that was thrown their way---and our company feels like they just didn't need us anymore. So, it sucks.

September 25 is our official last day here, but if we get all of our projects transitioned over to whoever is going to take it before then we can head on out of here. So, I'm hoping to do that before next week I can have everything done and all of my personal stuff taken home and Friday can be my last day. I will be paid up until the 25th and then I get 6 weeks of severance from there, so I have a short amount of time to find another job. I would love to take some time and spend it with my boys, but, I cannot afford to do it. So, it's job hunting time for me....which I hate.

I'm sad...I'm sad for me, and I'm sad for the 25 people in my department that lost their jobs this week. It's not fair.

It's not fair.

Where is my beer?

Monday Memories

So, I'm going to do this new thing that I've seen on a couple of other blogs. Just maybe a picture or two (or three or four) that is pretty old that I love. So, here it goes!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Parker. It was taken right after we had gone to watch my brother Jacob at his Freshman football game (Jake is starting his SENIOR year of high school today). It was SOOOOO cold out that I had to go to the concession stand and buy Parker a hat! This was October 2006. Look at my chunky monkey!

Getting some lovins' from Chompers! He is so stinking cute! I remember this day literally like it was yesterday.

Where did my baby go???

Back to School

So...Parker is now a big boy. Pre-School. Parker is in pre-school and I cannot believe it!

Monday was his first day of pre-school, and we've been hyping it up all summer long trying to get him ready and prepared. He was pretty excited to be going to a new school ("Miss Mary's") and that Kaitlyn and Nolan from down the street were going to be there too.

This was Parker right before we left to head off to his first day of school. I took a vacation day on Monday so I could drop him off and pick him up in the afternoon, and I was near by so if anything happened I could go up there and take care of things.

When we got there, I loaded Beckett into the stroller so we could walk Big Brother in to his new class. His teacher's assistant, Ms. Sondra was waiting patiently for all of the kids who were being dropped off at 7:45 (there are two drop off times, 7:00-7:20 and 7:45 to 7:55.) When we walked in Ms. Sondra said, "Parker, I love your backpack!" his response was, "Thanks, my daddy ordered it. It was expensive, it cost 100 bucks!" She looked at me funny and I said, "That backpack did NOT cost $100!" Where does he come up with this stuff?!?

When we walked into his classroom he was a little hesitant. He sat down at a table by himself and just kind of checked things out for a couple of minutes.
Hanging onto Beckett's stroller for dear life. Beckett looked like he was ready to get up and play a bit!

I can only imagine what was going through his little head! I'm sure he was nervous and excited at the same time. Me --- I was ready to cry!

Once he found him a friend to talk to, he was off. He told me to leave Beckett there with him, and once I told him that Beckett had to go home with me, he was fine. He walked over to the rug with another little boy and then I snuck out of their classroom.

Walking through the halls I wanted to just start sobbing. I cannot believe that my little boy is in PRE-SCHOOL!!! It just seems like there is no way that he should be this old already. Before I know it, we're going to be dropping him off at college.....tears :(

When I went to pick him up they said that he did really well. And, there is no other feeling that having him run to you and wrap his arms around you and say, "Mommy, I missed you!" Because I don't think he will ever have any idea of how badly I miss him when he's not right there with me!

The rest of the week has not gone that well when it comes to dropping him off. There are a lot of tears shed (both mine and his!), but we're making progress! Soon, he's not going to want to come home!

Finally! Vacation pics!

The last day in Myrtle Beach...he was pooped! He sat down and fell asleep on daddy's lap and when daddy got up, he just kept on sleeping! Which, as windy as it was, I couldn't believe it! Too much vacation for Parker!

Parker loves doing flips in the pool. Scott can never throw him high enough!

My babies!

Beckett and Daddy in the pool! Beckett loves him some daddy!

Beckett and Scott at the Alligator Adventure Park....it was SOOO hot that day!

Buried in the sand!

Look how red my face is! This was right before we were leaving for dinner one night!

He's going to be just like his brother.....Goggle Man!

They buried Parker in the sand. I wasn't sure if he was really going to like it much or not, but I think at this point, he was so tired that day that he didn't really care! Gotta love him, he's such a good sport.

Cutie pie Parker!

They buried Daddy this time! Sorry they are not ALL looking at me! It's hard to get them to smile at the camera at the same time (and in Beckett's defense, Parker did have some cool floaties to play with!)

One of my favorite pictures taken before dinner at Key West Bar & Grille

Checking out all of the sights at Broadway at the Beach

Daddy's and their boys

Loves the beach!

The coolest kids on the beach! Aiden and Parker

One of my favorite pics from vacation!

Me, Beckett, Aiden and Parker in the kiddie pool.

Right after we got checked in and swim trunks on! We headed straight to the pool!

There were many more pictures of course, but I didn't want to load down my site with all of them. Those are some of my favorites, and sorry they are not in order!

We had such a good time and hope we get to do it again next year! The kids had a blast and so did we. Now, I miss it so much and cannot believe that it's almost been a month since we were there! This summer has gone so fast, but that is one week I wished would have lasted forever!

No pictures!

Well, I will post pictures, as I promised the other day, but not right now! Our computer just decided to go to shit...and in a hurry. So, thankfully our wonderful neighbor Brian, who is an IT guy has been working on our computer to try to get it back into working form. THEN, when I get it back I will post some pictures.

It's been a month!

I cannot believe that it has been a month since I've posted anything! So, I apologize. I will try to be more diligent about it...but, I cannot make any promises!

We have been soooo busy. We FINALLY went on our long awaited vacation! I do not have access to the pictures that we have taken here at work (where I'm currently blogging from), but I will post sometime this weekend with all of the fun pics. Here are a few that I took on my phone that I do have access to.

This was while we were waiting for Peyton and Erika to call and let us know that they were close. We decided to leave at night time, so we could drive through the night, avoid some traffic and hopefully get the kids to sleep a majority of the way. I came home from work early that day so Scott could get some sleep and the poor guy COULD NOT fall asleep for anything! He kept trying and trying and he just couldn't do it. We planned to meet Peyton and Erika right off of the highway, so they were going to call when they were about a 1/2 hour away and then we were going to leave. Of course, Scott fell fast asleep 10 minutes before they called! Beckett has woke up around midnight and we decided to keep him awake until we got in the car. This was him staring up at his daddy and brother while they slept! Beckett was wide awake and ready to roll!

Scott, driving. He was pooped! I felt so bad for him because I know how it feels to drive when you have had NO sleep! Don't get your panties in a wad though...I did drive and offered to drive as much as he wanted me to!

We had stopped at about 5:30 in Gatlinburg and I told Scott that I would drive because I knew he was pooped. And, we were getting ready to get into the mountains, where you have to be on your guard the most. About half way through the mountains Parker started puking. We had walkie talkies so we could talk back and forth with Peyton and Erika without using our cell phones (which worked out wonderfully) and all of the sudden, right smack dab in the middle of the mountains I had to get on the walkie talkies and say, "We've got to pull over, I've got a puker!" Of course there are signs everywhere saying not to pull over unless it's an emergency and here we are getting him out of the car so he could puke over the guardrail. So, when we got back in the car we gave him some Coke to calm his tummy. I think he may have gotten a little bit car sick. If he's anything like his momma...it will happen all of the time! (Which is another reason why I drove through the mountains!)

This was Parker passed out cold about an hour away from Myrtle Beach. He was pooped! I had to keep reaching back and propping his head back up!

Finally, we were there! We kind of took our time getting there because our check-in wasn't until 3:00. When we got there we were exhausted, but, it was worth it. Look at our fabulous view!

I will write more when I can get access to more pictures. We had a blast! Cannot wait to do another vacation next year!

(and, I don't have any pictures of Beckett while we were in the car because he still has to sit rear facing in the car)

GOOD NEWS!!! Scott has wanted to be the head baseball coach at Campbell Co. (which is where we went to high school and where he played baseball) since retiring from the Cardinals and for the past 4 years at the end of every baseball season there are always rumors going around that they were going to offer him the job, or their current coach was going to retire. Well, same for this year, except, their coach really did retire and the job was actually open! So, he applied of course and his interview was Monday morning. They offered him the job on Tuesday afternoon (swearing him to secrecy until this morning). We are beyond pumped about it (although it's totally going to suck for me in the spring), but I know that this is what he has wanted to do forever. It's going to be so good to see him back at CCHS, where we came from! I cannot wait! We are going to make Parker the bat boy and he can sit in the dugout and will have his own uniform and everything! We will miss Brossart...but this is going to be awesome! Go Camels!

So, lots of good stuff going on for us! I will post more pics and info about our awesome vacation over the next couple of days!