Microburst Hits Huntsville Airport During Air Show Killing One

Doug and I heard about this tonight on the news. Below is the actually report from Channel 19 Newsroom. You might be able to still see the video from their website http://www.whnt.com/. You'll find it under "Top News Video" section.

Thousands of people were at Huntsville International Airport Sunday to watch the Army's Golden Knights and Navy's Blue Angels but the performance was cut show after a thunderstorm put down a microburst.

47 mile per hour winds at the airport toppled several tents set up for spectators. People were holding onto them to try to keep them from blowing away.

A child, 5 year old Aaron Miller, was killed when an air conditioning unit in one of the tents fell.

At least 12 people were taken to Huntsville Hospital and Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children to be treated for injuries. A hospital spokesman expects most of them to be treated and released. Their injuries range from cuts and bruises to broken bones.

The air show was immediately cancelled after the storm came through.

Frog Legs Story

I laughed at one of the blog sites that I love to read. Her and her husband, she refers to him as "Paratrooper Man" are having bull frog problems. Apparently a whole family of them have moved in the back yard. To show their gratitude to Paratrooper Man and Apron Queen, they serenade them all night long. It's a very funny story and possibly a good recipe to go along with it. If you have an opportunity, you need to check it out Here.

My Sunburn
Okay, so I was a little embarrassed when I went into church this morning. I was like the red beacon of light. LOL. Despite the fact, Doug giggled at me all morning long about my sunburn. Thanks Doug! Right off the bat, my friend, Stacy, asked me about the sunburn. A couple of my other friends asked me about it. As soon as I walked into our Sunday School Class, everybody started. I just try to keep in mind, they wouldn't pick at me if they didn't laugh at me. Right? Ugh! I think the women were more understanding than the men. So many comedians.

Mom Update
After church, we went to visit Mom at the Nursing Home. Again, she looked great! Susan and Jon were in her room visiting when we got there. Mom was sitting in her scooter, eating lunch. She's been eating most if not all of her meals, but for some reason the person(s)that weigh her say that she's loosing weight. She still has the feeding tube. Susan and I are puzzled along with Mom and Dad about the whole weight loss. We asked her how much are they saying she weighs. She told us, she weighs 150 pounds. I'm confused because that doesn't sound so bad. Mom said that Dad is planning to speak to somebody this week about it. First time I've seen her go to the potty was today. We were all surprised because the aid followed Mom into the bathroom. We asked her if she didn't need to change herself in the bed anymore and she said "no". Isn't that wonderful?!?

Maryann, Whitney and Zayne came by as well. We all moved our little party out into the gathering room. We haven't seen each other in so long, it was good to catch up and in the presence of Mom. I think it made Mom feel a little more like home because we were there laughing and carrying on like we would, if we were home. Mom showed us how she could pull both her legs out straight without hardly any effort. She seems to think as the days go by, her strength is getting better. I could tell from the way she was straightening out her legs like that, while she was sitting in her chair, she is a lot stronger than she was a month ago.

Potty Training
I am going to need your prayers. As you may know, potty training Katie hasn't been the easiest. While I was putting her to bed tonight, I sat down beside of her and explained that we were going to have to work a little harder with the potty training tomorrow. You have to understand, getting Katie to go potty is like pulling a 30 pound dog into the tub for a bath. She goes into kicking, screaming and begging with her life. Like I said, it hasn't been easy. Fortunately, tonight she told me that if "she goes to the potty, she'll get a rock to put in her jar and we will go to the jumper house". I just hope she'll keep that frame of mind tomorrow because I fear I will have my hands full. I've got to stay focused on the mission and get through it.

Prayer Request
If you haven't read Emily's blog in a while, she needs our prayers. She had to go back to the emergency room from the townhouse. Apparently, the medicine she is taking has severe side effects. The side effects she is suffering with right now is abdominal pains. She is went back to HTICU because the severe abdominal pain was unbearable. Please remember her and her family in your prayers.

Blue Angels' Air Show

Okay, again with the comedians. Didn't you see the whole part about me staying up until 3:00 this morning? :P I looked at my events widget and I had the right date, I just didn't pay close attention to details. Anyway, I've got it fixed.

Air Show

We had a great time at the air show. Oh my gosh the people! They were every where. Doug seems to think that this years attendance was much bigger than the last Blue Angel Show, 7 years ago. Traffic was terrible. It was a complete stop at Exit 3 and we needed to get off at Exit 5. We ended up getting off at Exit 3 and taking the side frontage road up to the airport. We deliberately got to the show late in the day because we knew that it would be really hot today and the Blue Angels wouldn't perform until 3:00 p.m. We got there around 1:30 and had to park in the back 40. One of the Events Staff told us that we would have to hike a mile and a half to the show. We didn't think Millard and Peggy would be able to keep up, but they did real good.

I think we got real good places to set our lawn chairs and watch the show. While we were getting situated,
I heard my name. It was my friends, Michelle and Brent and their two little girls. Brent is a truck driver for UPS and goes on long trips. Michelle said this was the first weekend that he's been home in weeks. They thought it would be a good idea to spend a little family time together at the air show. They've never seen the Blue Angels, so they were a little syked.

Once we got situated, Millard went to the potty and Doug, Katie and I went looking around at the exhibits. I was really disappointed because they didn't have the exhibits for younger children like they did several years ago. Katie got a souvenir Blue Angels Fighter Jet. It was so hot that my pants were beginning to stick to my legs. Ugh! I was getting hot and tired quick. I told Doug that I'd meet him back at the chairs. Katie and I grabbed Millard and Peggy a couple of bottled waters and I got a cup of frozen lemonade. The frozen lemonade ended up being a slush by the time I got back to Peggy. We put sunscreen on and I kept it on Katie, but Doug and I still got cooked (more me than him). Millard and Peggy kept their umbrellas over them, but the wind was so bad that it would turn the umbrellas inside out. What a pain! I tried it for a little bit, but it got to where I couldn't see the planes performing. Now, I guess I wished I had the umbrella over my head a little more than I did, but I'm afraid I would have missed out of a lot.

Katie really liked the Blue Angels flying over her head, she'd get excited. Peggy was holding Katie during the show. Katie would have to give her the step by step details as to what was going on. It was cute. The show was worth the heat, sweat and sun burn to see Katie's face when she would watch the planes flying around. Doug thought the Blue Angels would perform for 30 minutes, I couldn't remember how long they performed. They ended up performing for an hour. We got a lot of pictures of the show. You'll have to check out our photosite. Overall I believe we walked 3 miles today at the air show. Peggy and I wore sandals and by the time we got back to the truck, I saw how filthy my feet were. Yuck! I grabbed a few of Katie's Wet One's and took a quick G.I. bath inside the truck.

All of us worked up an appetite, so we went to a local barbecue restaurant for supper. I just felt yuck, so I went back to the bathroom and wiped my face, arms and hands. I felt so much better. As soon as we got home, all of us (not at the same time) hit the shower/tub and bathed.

Blogger Addiction

Okay, I have a confession . . . I think I'm addicted to the internet and especially blogger. Tehe! Guess how late I stayed up last night and didn't realize what time it was? Hold on to your seat girls, I was beginning to get really tired, I turned off the computer, rolled over and noticed the clock on the dresser. The clock said it was 3:05 a.m. What? I thought my eyes were playing tricks, so I looked again and sure enough it was 3:05 a.m. I woke up at 8:00 a.m. and rolled over, I could feel Doug get out of bed. I woke up again at 8:30 a.m. and decided to get out of bed.

You are probably wondering what it was to keep my attention all night. As you can tell from from my sidebar, I found all kinds of inspiring blogspots. I really enjoyed reading the devotions and inspiring stories that I want to keep in touch with them. Some links I was able to copy a thumbnail picture as a direct link from my blogspot. If you want to be inspired and filled with fresh enlightenment, please check out these sites. The sites are created by ordinary Christian Mothers that struggle from everyday life, just like us. I was also able to find some new cool widgets to add to my blog.

Well, I must be off to get ready for the Blue Angels Airshow. We will take lots of pictures and I will post them as soon as possible. Take care!

A Date With My Hubby

Okay, first of all this is a clarification to all of you that don't know what a bbq "butt" is. A "butt" is a Southern or Alabama way of saying barbecue Boston Butt. Such comedians that love to read my blog. LOL! :P

Now, I've got to tell you about my wonderful date with the love of my life. Millard and Peggy came by on their way home from town and picked up Katiebug to spend the night. Poor Katie! I tried my best to get her to take a nap from 1:00 and finally she gave it up by 3:30 this afternoon. Doug went in her bedroom to wake her up around 5:00 and she remained laying around in her bed. Millard and Peggy got here around 5:30, I had to go and drag Katie out of the bed, wash her up and make her go potty before she left. She was still so sleepy and all she wanted me to do is hold her. It took a while, but she finally came around.

We decided to go to Bridge Street and see the new Indiana Jones movie at the Monoco. Well, the movie didn't start until 8:15, so we decided to go eat first. We've already eaten at Laredo, so we wanted to try Connor's Steakhouse. We got there around 6:30 and their wait was 2 hours. Did you read that? Two (2) hours! Oh my gosh! We both looked at each other and left. Before going to Red Robins, we thought we would check out one more place - P.F. Changs. I love P.F. Changs and the wait was only 30-40 minutes. YES! As we were waiting, Doug and I were contemplating as to how long it had been since we've been to a P.F. Changs. I guess it was in Memphis during one of the Ducks Unlimited Shows. Wow! That was many moons ago. Anyway, me and this older lady got to talking about what we were deciding to eat. Oh, I was so hungry and everything looked and smelled wonderful. Doug and I were a little miffed because the older couple, we were talking to, got seated before us and we were there a little longer than they were. Ugh! How dare they? Didn't they know how hungry I was? When we finally got seated, we had to get our usual Chicken Lettuce Wraps as a starter. Yummy! It's so delicious. Doug loves spicy hot foods, so he wanted to take the chance on the Dali Chicken. Wow! I tried it and it was a slow heat, but Doug really liked the taste. He said, it was his new favorite dish. I tried their Chang's Spicy Chicken and it was my new favorite dish. We both really wanted a side of fried rice to go along with our meal, instead of plain steamed rice. Unfortunately, you couldn't choose between the two. It was either brown or steamed rice, but you could get the fried rice as extra. That's a lot of wasted food. We loved our waitress, she was so sweet. She knew that I had my heart set on fried rice, but we ended up ordering the brown rice. Bless her heart, she said she spoke to the manager and they ended up giving us a combination fried rice (shrimp, beef and chicken) on the house. I couldn't thank her enough. Oh, I could have made a meal off of the fried rice alone. I don't know what they put in their fried rice to make it taste so great. I'm sure I was making Doug sick, dissecting every dish. I told him how I would love to get the recipe for their Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Fried Rice. He told me to check out the internet for the recipes. I might just do that because I absolutely love these dishes. Everything we ate tonight was absolutely scrumptious and I hated to stop, but I knew I would regret it later. Tehe!

Of course, we missed the movie, but that's okay. To be perfectly honest, I don't much care for movie theaters. You never know what you are going to step or sit in and who you're going to sit next to. You spend approximately $7-$8 a ticket to sit near someone that's going to talk throughout the whole movie. Better yet, someone brings their children and the kids talk or cry the whole time. It's very rare that I've really enjoyed myself in a movie theater. I'd much rather be at home with my own snacks and be able to pause, whenever necessary, when watching a movie.

Because we missed the movie, Doug went to the Apple Store and I headed to J. Jill's. Have I ever told you how much I love J. Jill's? They had these nice snap hoodies on sale in a pretty blue. I also had to try on a pair of shorts and a shirt that was on sale, but it didn't flatter me at all. Yuck! Something kept drawing me to the hoodie. I had to get it, plus I got it for half off the original price. Doug even liked it on me. On the way to the car, I had to stop off at Gymboree, but I didn't see anything I had to have.

It was such a beautiful night, not too hot. Between these plaza stores, there's this cobble stone courtyard where different street performers were doing their thing (singing, playing their instruments and entertaining the crowds). It really drew the crowd that's for sure. In one section of the courtyard, there are these dancing waters. A small group of kids began playing out in the water while their parents sat watching from the park benches. The children were soaked from head to toe and having a fantastic time. Because it was such a perfect evening, there were quite a few people commercing outside over dinner and drinks. When you have a perfect evening such as tonight, you nearly don't want it to end.

To put the whipped topping on the cake, I called baby girl to wish her a good night. She was deciding what movie she was going to watch with Paw-Paw Millard. She was having such a great time, spending time with her grandparents.

Tomorrow, Doug and I are going to pick up Millard, Peggy and Katie and head for the airshow. Woo Hoo! The rain chances have decreased to 30% or 40%, so I hope it turns out to be a success. If you plan on going, I guess we'll see you there.

Momma's Little Helper

As you can tell, I've been cleaning out closets and packing things up like clothes that don't fit. Well, Katie has been such a little helper. She is my shadow. If she sees me do something it's "Momma, whatcha doing?" Yesterday, I had to wash and vacuum floors in the house. She helped me pull everything out of the bathroom, so I could wash it. I asked her if she wanted to help me vacuum floors. "Uh, huh" she replied. I got out her little vacuum cleaner. Sure enough, she followed me all through the house vacuuming right behind my vacuum. Ha Ha! She helped me pick up the toys in the Living Room before I vacuumed. Lucky girl! She got a rock in her jar for helping Mom. Poor Baby, she still has a few rock left before she can go to the jumper house aka bounce house. If she'll learn to shut her mouth and not have to have the last word, she'd have a full jar. Hopefully, she'll learn one day.

Last night, Doug finally got to watch "Over Her Dead Body". He thought it was funny too. I would wait until one of the funny moments, he'd start laughing and then I had to laugh. This is such a funny movie. I just hope it's not late going back to Movie Gallery. Yikes! I'm pretty sure the girl told me that it was due back Friday. I'll have to pay a late fee, if today's not the right day.

I was hoping to take Katie's Library books back today as well, so I can find a couple of books for me like "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. I have a feeling I'm not going to be able to find a book for myself, while I have Katie with me. I'm very uncomfortable allowing her to be in her section while I'm looking for something for me. But she gets bored fast when she's with me looking for a book. Ugh! Anyway, I just knew we had read all the books that we checked out last week, but we have 3 books yet to read. The books aren't due back until the 7th of July.

I'm beginning to notice something new from Katie and her learning. I've noticed this past week, while she is watching her favorite shows like "Little Einsteins", "Go Diego Go", "Dora the Explorer" and "Playhouse Disney". If you've seen one of these shows at least once, you know that they ask a lot of questions and give multiple answers. In the past, Katie would answer every once in a while. More than likely, it was the wrong answer. This past week, she answered the questions more and this time, they were the correct answers. She's so smart! (Yeah, proud Mom).

Katie loves to play with my mind. Do most kids like to do this? I would feel so much better if I knew that they do. Ugh! For instance, she'll tell me that she's cold and she wants her kitty blanket. I told her that her kitty blanket was in the dirty clothes. I offered one of her other blankets, but she got upset because she wanted her kitty blanket. She told me that she didn't want that blanket or any other blanket I offered her. Okay that's it, I thought. She'll just have to stay cold. At the last minute, she'll agree to use one of the other blankets to cover up with. The thing is you have to find the blanket she is talking about. Ugh! By this time, my brain's fried and I have to go sit down.

Doug asked his parents to keep Katie tonight, so he and I can go out on a date. Isn't that nice? He can be so nice when he wants to be. Tehe! Love you baby! I guess since my body is acting so freaky now with the unseen stress in my life. CRAZY! I feel fine, I just have outbursts every once in a while. LOL. Do ya know how challenging this can be especially if you are trying to conceive a baby. Ugh! God are ya telling me something I don't know? Ya got to keep the humor or you would probably go crazy. Oh well, I know God will bless us with another baby some day. Please keep us in your prayers. Thanks!

June and Pat invited us over for the 4th of July. They want to cook a butt on the grill and maybe some ribs. It sounded like everyone else has the sides pretty much planned, so I offered to go in halfers with the ribs. So, it will be nice to float around in the pool, gnawing on a rib or maybe a butt sandwich and visiting with family. I'm still hoping to load up Katie and whoever else wants to come, go to the lake and see the fireworks.

Have a great weekend! Love ya!

Katie's Temporary Tattoos

I tore into Katie's room and cleaned it out today. I got a couple of big boxes yesterday for storage and it didn't take long before they were both full. I could still use a couple more boxes to store her shoes and toys. I did find a perfect storage box with a handle lid for her Barbies. She loves it. Now where ever she goes, she's caring her Barbie box with her. I had no where to put her old shoes, so I temporarily put them in a couple of Pamper's boxes. I grabbed a sharpie and duct tape, so I could tell what was inside the box. While I was knee deep in 2T Fall/Winter clothes that I needed to pack up, the phone rang. It was June inviting us to a 4th of July get together. I got distracted talking with June about the menu and Katie walked into her room with black marker all over her arms, hands, legs, and an old pair of shoes. Ugh! I told June on the phone what was going on and I couldn't find the Sharpie that I had on the table.
June got to laughing and told me that I had to take a picture of her with her art work all over her body. I found the Sharpie in the Living Room under the table and thus far, I can't find any evidence that she wrote on anything else. This is the second time she has done this with the marker. I blame myself because I laid the marker on the table in her room, while packing stuff up. I washed her hands to see if it looks like it will come off. It's hard to tell, but I think there is a chance. I just hope we can get it off before picture day. This could delay our 3 year old pictures. We'll see.


Coke Rewards
Today is the big coke double points day. If you don't know about it and you keep up with the Coke Rewards, today and today only you will receive double points when they are entered.

Hell's Kitchen
Have you been keeping up with Hell's Kitchen. Since we were at Peggy and Millard's last for supper, we didn't get to watch it. I finally got to see last night's show this morning. I just knew Christina would be one of the final contestants, but Petrozza. I can't understand why or how he could still be in this competition. So, who do you think will win it all? You'll have to vote on my poll.

Shaq's Moving To Alabama
It was on the local news tonight that Shaquille O'Neal was in Huntsville, looking for property. Of course, he won't reveal exactly where they will be living, but to be expecting to see him and his family around town a lot. He was enrolling his son in Space Camp for the Summer. The news is so new that it hasn't made Channel 19's website yet. I'll have to let you know how it goes.

Rewards Jar Update

Okay, I've been a little harder on Katie with the whole Rewards Jar. I warned her this morning that I was not going to deal with the talking back today, like I have the past few days. I've given her warnings after warnings, not today. I was going to give her one warning and then we were taking rocks out of the jar. Fortunately for her, she only had three rocks taken out today. It didn't last long because her "thank you" and "please" earned her the three rocks back, plus more today. She's excited because she doesn't have very many rocks left in the bag to put in her jar.

Mama's Big Day

Time With Grandma Peggy & Papa Millard
Katie and I got to Peggy's house in time for us to eat our Pop Tart for breakfast. I left the girlies around 10:30, in order to get our car tags renewed, visit Mom at the Nursing Home and hit Walmart before going home. I was hoping to accomplish everything before it got dark. lol.

Man, going to the courthouse at around 11:00 this morning was the best time to get your tags renewed. When I drove up, a car was pulling out of a good parking place. Alright! I just knew today was going to be a good day for me. I walked straight into the Tag and Title Division and to my surprise there was just one person in front of me. WOW! I was out and on my way in about 30 minutes. Normally, this isn't my luck.

Peggy said her and Katie had a good time, other than fighting off mosquitoes. Peggy sprayed some bug spray on Katie's legs and arms, but the bugs must of gotten a hold of her before the bug spray. She had a few spots on her, but she'll be fine. I have a feeling this is just going to be a bad year for mosquitoes and other biting insects. I saw on the news today about the big West Nile Virus scare again.

Peggy and Millard both said that Katie did very good saying "please," "thank you," and going to the potty at their house. They said that they had to threaten Katie a couple of times about telling me to take out a rock. Millard said Katie went in the other room to pout about it because she didn't want a rock out of her jar. I've noticed that the "please" and "thank you" is coming a little easier for her because at times, she doesn't know that she said it until someone points it out to her. Manners coming naturally to her, is exactly what I've been hoping would happen. I just hope she keeps it up.

Peggy said that her and Katie went to Henry's house a couple of times to check out the baby kittens. Katie loves those kittens. She says (in her high pitch voice) "their so cute." When Doug and I got to Peggy and Millard's this evening, I wanted to sit outside because it was so nice out there. At the time, Katie didn't want to go that is until I told her that there was a horse in the pasture across from Grandma and Papa's yard. She was up like a shot, ready to see the horse. Unfortunately, she thought it was a carousel horse and not a real one. Katie, Peggy and myself walked over to where the horse was at. Well, it started walking away. Luckily, it heard me calling for it and came back to check us out. Katie was having a fit. She was so excited that she wanted to pet the horse. I was afraid to pick Katie up at the time because it could spook the horse and that's usually the last thing you want to do. I just left Katie where she was and told her to stick her hand out to see if the horse will smell it. Well, she was too short and the horse didn't know she existed. Katie may not have been able to pet the horse, but she sure did enjoy watching it. When the horse had enough, it turned around and went back to his house. As it was walking off, Katie kept waving to it and telling bye. She told me as we were walking back home, how that was a nice horse and she was going to see it again tomorrow.

Visit With Mom
I got to the Nursing Home around 11:20 and couldn't find Mom right off the bat. I wasn't worried. I knew she was around there some where. In fact, I was glad to see her out of her room once again. With it being so close to lunch time, I thought she might have had lunch with Opaline in one of the Dining Halls. This Nursing Home is so big, I only know of three Dining Halls and I couldn't find Mom in any of them. Then, I remembered that she might be going through Physical Therapy. Uh Huh! As I was walking back down the hall to check out the therapy room, here she came wheeling out of the room. I announced, "there she is!" The therapists that were with her began to giggle and cheer with me. All three therapist told me how well she did today in therapy. Christy, head therapist, told me that Mom walked on this platform 22 feet. I asked if she used a walker or some help. I didn't understand it fully, only that she holds on to these handles to help pull her along. Mom told me later that she gave it her all today and that they really worked her hard. She was wiped out by the time she was done for the day. She is making the effort to moving her legs more in her bed; whereas, before she would just lie there and wait for someone to move them for her. I commented that I honestly believe, the weakness is what has held her back for so long. Think about it. When you have the flu or a real bad stomach virus, you're so weak that you don't feel like doing anything but lying on the couch. Right? Now, take that stomach virus or flu and multiple it by 10x. Wow! She's been this weak for months without hardly any break in between.

I asked Mom if she felt like going outside because it was so nice in the shade. We went out on the patio, where they have lots of rockers, and visited for a while. She had to interrupt me talking because she was getting sick. She felt that the therapy got to her more than she first thought. The nurse's assistant got Mom back in bed and turned on the air conditioning because was a little flush. She said she felt dizzy and light headed. After a little while with the air blowing on her, she got to feeling much better. I sat and talked to her while she ate her lunch (cup of vegetable soup, cup of peaches & ice tea). I kept asking her if she needed my help to feed her. She said no and that she didn't feel as weak feeding herself like she did weeks ago. I watched her pretty close, feeding herself. She did great, I thought. She ate all of her soup and peaches. The only thing I helped her with was to cut up her peaches.

Mom got a perm since the last time I saw her, which was Thursday. She looked so pretty. She is still having problems with her eyes. Apparently, her eyes have gotten worse since the surgeries. She can't see out her regular prescription glasses and we had her try Doug's 3+ strength glasses to see if it helped. Well, she told me today that she still can't see with the glasses. I asked her how we were going to get her an eye appointment in order to get a new prescription. Neither one of us had any idea.

I was so thrilled to hear Mom say that she was going to the 7:00 Bible Study group tonight. YES! Thank you God! She still acted like she really didn't want to go, but Opaline kept talking to her about it and insisted on her attending. I told her, I thought it was a great idea and that way Opaline could introduce Mom to other ladies, that didn't seem so crazy.

Gas Prices
My gas gage in the truck was showing slightly under 1/2 a tank. I get nervous if my gas tank gets under a 1/2 tank. I felt like I had to fill up. Like normal, I put the nozzle in the tank and fixed the button on it, in order to keep the gas pumping into the tank. I wasn't really paying close attention. Next thing I know, I've got a little over 14 gallons of gas in my tank and it was showing that I just spent over $55 in gas. Ugh! I was expecting more like $45-50 at the most. The button didn't even pop up, so I know it wasn't completely full. This right here, is the very reason I can't afford to go like I use to. Now, the Disney Store is going out of business in Huntsville because I couldn't afford gas to drive there on a regular basis, like I normally did. High gas prices caused me to neglect Disney, forcing them to loose money and go out of business. Yeah, I know . . . a little too thick? Right? Oh well, it sounded good.

Movies In Review
Have you seen "Over Her Dead Body"? I rented it Saturday night and was finally able to watch it this afternoon. Oh my gosh! I laughed and laughed. I figured it would be funny, but not this funny. It's so funny how Kate (Eva) tries her best to scare off Ashley (Lake) from getting too cozy with her fiance Henry. Kate will do anything and I mean ANYTHING to get rid of Ashley for good, but then later find out how miserable Henry is without Ashley. Kate changes her mind set about Henry's happiness and tries her best to get them back together before it's too late. There are no sex scenes and the language is some what mild. If you need a good laugh, like I did, this is the movie for you. I'm tempted to buy it for our collection.

Another good movie selection is "Fool's Gold". Matthew McConaughey is in this movie - need I say more? Listen, he may stink like BO, but isn't he beautiful? Another great actress that's in this movie is Kate Hudson. I have to say this movie started out a little slow and I couldn't get past the fact that Donald Sutherland was talking in a British ascent, which by the way, DIDN'T WORK. You could tell he was forcing himself to sound British. The overall movie was good.

Last but not least, grab your Kleenex girls. "The Bucket List" is such a tear jerkier that Doug even got a little wet faced. I really liked this story, but it's sad in the end. I can't remember his name, but the sidekick off of "Will and Grace" is on this movie and he is perfect for the part. I think he is so funny. He and Jack Nicholson's sarcasm bounced off of one another causing the laughter part of the movie. It's a must see!

What Are Your Plans for The 4th of July?
At this point, I can't think about the 4th of July right now because we are syked about seeing the Blue Angels this weekend. Katie is going to love it! Whitney asked me if we were going this weekend, but I don't know if they are going yet. June and KimAnn are planning on going Saturday, so I guess we'll see them there.

On the night of 4th of July, I would like to take Katie to Smith Lake to watch the fireworks display. They always have such a great show every year. People set out in their boats on the lake, cars line the sides of the road along the lake and tons of people hang out at the park and make it an all day event for the family. Doug's really not into all of that, but maybe Katie and I can slip away and see if we could get close enough to see them and enjoy the evening.

The Rewards Jar Update

I have to say I'm seeing somewhat of a change in Katie now that we have the "Rewards Jar". If I had to guess, I would say she has 1/2 the rocks from the bag into her jar. She gets so excited when she remembers to say "please" and "thank you". When she sees my eyes get real big, she starts giggling and tells me "oh, I get a rock for saying that." Too cute! I let her get a rock out of the bag and put it in her jar. I think the last time I counted the rocks in her jar, she had about 25. She gets one rock for every good deed. She also helped me clean up the Living Room, her room and wash dishes today.

I did have to take one rock out of her jar because she was sassing me this morning, telling me "no" and that "I not 'shhh' her". It's not like I didn't warn her because I gave her two warnings and that was that. Boy, she didn't like me taking a rock out of her jar. She begged and cried.

A couple times I caught her wanting to put more than one rock inside the jar. She knew what she was doing because she would look up at me. When I corrected her, she put just one rock inside the jar and put all the others back in the bag. Little smartie britches! I also had to correct her because she would just come up to me and say "please" or "thank you" for no reason. After I asked her why she said that, then she said "I get a rock in my jar." Smart Thinking! But no rock for just saying the word(s). At least she tried. Right? It amazing how kids minds work, sitting around and thinking up stuff.

I wish you could watch her choose the rock she is going to put in her jar. It is so cute, but very timely. She'll go through several rocks and talking aloud, "I think I'll get this one. No, I think I want this one. No, I think I want this one." This may go on for about a minute, as she's picking up all these rocks. She has to pick a special one for her jar, apparently.

Oh, I've got to tell you. While talking to Katie about the Rewards Jar and it's benefits, I mentioned that we could go to the Bounce House. Well, that's all it took. She didn't hear anything else I said. From then on it was, "I put a rock in my jar and go to the bounce house." Unfortunately, she thought just one rock would do the trick. As soon as she put a rock in her jar, she'd ask me "are you ready to go." I got to asking her "where are we going?" She responded, "we go to the bounce house today." To her disappointment, I had to remind her several times that it takes all the rocks from the bag to go to the bounce house. I thought it was going to loose her enthusiasum because she got to where she didn't want to put the rock in the jar anymore. Uh! So, I got to talking up the bounce house to her again. I tried to encourage her by saying, "come on! Put the rock in the jar, so you can work your way up to the bounce house." She started getting a little excited about it again. Before bed, she pee-peed in the potty. She thought she would get her usual chocolate. I gave her an option - chocolate or another rock to go towards the bounce house. With a smile on her face, she said "I get a rock for my bounce house." I showed her the bag and the few rocks that were left in the bag. She got excited once again.

Roof
We've been looking into getting a new roof. This past week, we had a couple of guys come by and give us an estimate. This one guy, Reed, is a country bumpkin. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but he cracks me up. He is very down to earth and sweet as pie. He also has a few missing teeth, a huge scar right down the side of his face (there could be a story there) and drives around in an old rusted (looks like it could have been blue at one time), oil leaking pickup about the size of an old Datsun. I told Doug that I thought the rust kept the truck together. Tehe! Now Reed's a pretty good size man. I had to see him and two other of his comrades get in this teeny tiny pickup. You'll just have to take my word for it - IT WAS A SIGHT! Reed gave us a very good price for the work. The big question was, how's his quality of work. I made sure that he knew up front that I expected there to be no messes, including nails in my yard and I didn't want any bushes demolished. He said he understood and would do just that - good clean work. They gave Doug some references. Apparently, Doug has been talking to our good friend, Lindley, about the roofing job. Lindley had Reed come by and give him an estimate on his roof as well. Lindley was just as surprised as we were on the price. He wanted Doug to go with him Saturday to check out a couple of houses, Reed did work on, but Doug had to work that day. Doug talked to Lindley today at work and he really liked Reed's roofing work. I know Doug called up one reference and they had no complaints about Reed's work. Lindley told Doug that he believes he is going with Reed, so guess what? I guess we are as well. Tehe! Doug and Lindley have it all figured out. We are going with the dimensional shingles with the ridge put in instead of new vents. After Doug explained to me what a ridge was, it makes sense. The ridge covers the whole length of your roof and can create more circulation than a vent does. I know from experience that our roof is way too hot. The other roofer that gave us a quote said our roof was too hot. The first couple of years we lived here, I pulled out some things that I had stored in the attic. Ugh! A lot of our stuff got ruined, especially my Christmas decorations because at the time, I stored most of my Christmas decorations up there. I was so disgusted! Doug said that with a ridge the attic won't get that hot. Plus, the dimensional shingles that Reed quoted us has a 30 year warranty compared to the 20 year warranty on regular shingles. Now, we've got to get them penciled into the calendar.

Grandma Day
Peggy really hasn't had an opportunity to spend time with Katie these past couple of weeks. So, I'm taking Katie to her Grandma Peggy's for the day tomorrow. Katie is so excited. She wants to take her dolls (Barbie) and play dolls with Grandma Peggy. Be prepared Grandma!

I plan to take this opportunity and visit my Mom. I haven't seen her since Thursday. I think Mom does better during the day, so I'm going to try to make the effort to get there during the morning hours.

Cleaning Out Katie's Toys & Closet
Today, I went through and organized Katie's toys again. It seems as if I do this once a month or every other month. I like it because I'll know where every thing's at when she wants it. I can't wait until Katie gets older to where she can do it herself. I have a clear plastic box for: dress-up/pretend, Fisher Price Little People, Barbie Doll Clothes, Blocks and Disney Princess Miniature Dolls & clothes.

I pulled out some toys, out of her toy boxes, that I felt were too young for her. I'm planning on packing them away for the next little Mason. I didn't have anymore boxes to put them in, so I had to use a garbage bag for right now. I plan to grab a few boxes tomorrow, while I'm at Walmart. I also need to get a couple more Space Bags for Katie's old clothes. I'll be glad when I get my storage building because I discovered that Katie has either took the caps off of most the Space Bags with clothes already in them or has unzipped the uses bags all together. Ugh! I have no where else to put these bags. They've always worked real well behind her bed, but the stack has gotten so high that I've referred them as "The Wall of Clothes." Santa Claus, if you read this - please get me a storage building.

Blue Angels
If you keep up with my Calendar of Events, you know that the Blue Angels are coming to Huntsville next weekend. I'm excited for Katie. She's like her Daddy when it comes to planes and helicopters. She loves to watch them take off or land. The last time the Blue Angels came to Huntsville, Boeing made it a very special event with lots of vendors. The Blue Angels are suppose to begin their performance around 3:00. Doug is that right? I think we are planning to get there a little early because I want to take Katie around to the vendors before the show starts. I'm sure as soon as the Blue Angels have finished performing, all the vendors will have closed up shop and headed home. I just hope the weather will hold out for us. The forecast tonight showed that the temps will be around the mid 80s and 60% chance of rain. It's only Monday, so there's a good chance the weather will have changed a couple of times before the weekend gets here. We'll see.

Sand & Stone

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING
THROUGH THE DESERT.
DURING SOME POINT OF THE
JOURNEY THEY HAD AN
ARGUMENT AND ONE FRIEND
SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE
IN THE FACE.

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED
WAS HURT BUT, WITHOUT
SAYING ANYTHING,
WROTE IN THE SAND:

'TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.'

THEY KEPT ON WALKING
UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS
WHERE THEY DECIDED
TO TAKE A BATH.

THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN
SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE
MIRE AND STARTED DROWNING,
BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM
THE NEAR DROWNING,
HE WROTE ON A STONE:

'TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SAVED MY LIFE.'

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED
AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND
ASKED HIM, 'AFTER I HURT YOU,
YOU WROTE IN THE SAND, AND NOW
YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?'

THE FRIEND REPLIED
'WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US,
WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN
IN SAND WHERE WINDS OF
FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.
BUT WHEN SOMEONE DOES
SOMETHING GOOD FOR US,
WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE
WHERE NO WIND
CAN EVER ERASE IT.'

LEARN TO WRITE
YOUR HURTS IN
THE SAND AND TO
CARVE YOUR
BENEFITS IN STONE.

THEY SAY IT TAKES A
MINUTE TO FIND A SPECIAL
PERSON, AN HOUR TO
APPRECIATE THEM,

A DAY TO LOVE THEM,

BUT THEN AN ENTIRE LIFE
TO FORGET THEM.


I received the above from my cousin and wanted to share it with you. You know, life is too short. "In your anger do not sin"[a]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry" Ephesians 4:26

Big Hair Is Back?

Did you hear the news about Big Hair? Houston Chronicle had a write up on how it is a big hit again. "Apparently, they are popping up every where . . . proms, weddings, and other special events." Quote from "Houston Chronicle" article.

Just when I finally got use to the whole straight/flat hair styles, I read Beth Moore's blog the other day. Ugh! According to Houston's Chronicle, big hair is back. "A Great Day" - Beth Moore Blog. If you've ever been or seen one of Beth Moore's conferences, you'll know she is a true Southerner/Texan. There's nothing BIG like Texas. Right? Beth loves big hair and proud of it. Tehe! She jokes about it every conference she instructs. She is so funny about her teasing her hair. In a way, I'm glad big hair is back too. In the late 80s and early 90s, I was all about BIG Hair. Do you remember the big hair picks with the spray bottle handles, so you could keep your hair spray in it? I always kept it on hand and loaded in my big bag. I never missed an opportunity to tease my hair at school. I'll have to dig out some old pictures of when I had big hair and post it. You'll never think it was me.

Katie's Last Day of Swimming Lessons

Katie's Swimming Lessons
Katie's last day of swimming lessons went real well. I asked RuthAnne what areas does she need work on and special attention. She said that I need to continue to work with Katie's humming. She still wants to open her mouth while swimming and especially going under water. As soon as I can get the swim belt, I'll be able to work with her reaching in the water. Katie didn't want to leave the pool yesterday. She acted as if she knew that it was her last day. She kept asking me if we were going to come back tomorrow (today). When I told her no that this was her last day, she got real sad.

Katie's Reward
When we finally left, she told me that she didn't want to go home. I asked her what did she want to do. We ended up going to Books-a-Million and I let her stay in her section. She had a blast being surrounded with books of all kinds. There are three chairs were the children's book section is located. I felt a little uncomfortable because the place wasn't packed with people and this young guy was sitting in one of the chair in the children's section. He was acting like he was reading this book, but I noticed him watching Katie. I made sure she was within viewing distance. I didn't want her to have to leave the children's section just because this guy seemed weird. I was hoping he would get up and leave. She was having trouble putting some books back where she found them, so he helped her put them up. I tried to think that maybe he was just trying to be helpful, but you never know in this day and time. I had her sit down in a chair and I sat with her, blocking his view of her. I finally convinced her that we would go to the Library and check out some books. Something told me that I didn't like the situation, we were in at the moment. Katie got all excited and was ready for the Library.

At the Library, I picked out some books that we've never read. We also picked up a couple of movies as well. I was excited to see "Pollyanna". I remembered seeing that movie when I was little. So, we got "Pollyanna" and a new "Miss Spider and the Sunny Patch Friends" movie. I wanted to check out "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis, but our Library had been remodeled and I couldn't find it right off the bat. Ugh! By that time, Katie was ready to go. Needless to say, I didn't get the book. We went down the back roads to go home. I couldn't get over the houses that were for sale not far from the school. Last night, I asked Doug if he knew of anything that was going on. Usually if you see lots of property up for sale, that means somethings going on. Something like road expansion or a new development. He thought that was strange, but he didn't know anything about it.

A Parents' Nightmare
Last night, we decided to go to Huntsville. I promised that if Katie listened to Mrs. Knight all week, then I would take her to the Disney Store. Doug dropped us off at Belk, while he went to Best Buy. On the way to the Disney Store, I stopped off at Gymboree. I knew they were having a good sale. On their sale rack, I got two long sleeve shirts and a pair of pink pants for $5.99 each. Katie needs a sun hat for this Summer and more importantly, for our beach trip. Tehe! I found two sun hats at Gymboree that I liked. Katie was in love with this white hat with a BIG pink bow. She kept walking around the store with this hat on her head. I wanted to wait on the hat because I knew the Disney store would probably have some hats that would match Katie's swimming suits (Minnie Mouse & Tinkerbell). We put our hats back and headed for Disney. Woo Hoo! Katie was so excited. I was floored when we finally got to the store. To our BIG disappointment, we found out that the Disney Store is going out of business. Ugh! What a sad day for the Masons! Of course, Katie couldn't understand what was going on. She couldn't understand where everything was at. I was so disappointed for Katie. In fact, I was disappointed all together how vacant the mall was on a Friday night.

I called up Doug and let him know about the store. He was still shopping at Best Buy. I asked him if he felt like going to Toys R Us for Katie. We agreed that as soon as he got through shopping, he would take us to Toys R Us. Katie and I went back to Gymboree and got a sun hat, barrettes and necklace. She still wanted the BIG white sun hat with the pink bow. In fact, while I was looking for another accessory to get 50% off, Katie put the hat up on the counter. The guy rang it up and put it in our bag. When Katie agreed on the necklace instead of a pair of sunglasses, I put it on the counter to be rang up. I noticed the white hat. I asked him, "what's this?" I didn't want this hat. He apologized and said that Katie put it up on the counter. He just assumed that I wanted to purchase it too. Guess what hat size Katie wears? I tried the 2T-5T on her, but it felt a little snug. I was afraid that it would give her a headache after a while. The next size up is 8 & up. It's a little big, but works fine. At Gymboree, I asked the guy what the problem was with the mall being so vacant. I asked him if was because of "Bridge Street"? He said that the mall began to go vacant long before the new plaza. He said he noticed it when Belk bought out Parisian. He said that they haven't been the same and how it would be great to get another big department store like Macy's to move in. He did say that nice days like today, most customers go to Bridge Street because it's outside. So sad!

We headed back to Belk and waited around for Doug's call. I wanted to check out the Children's Department, but Katie saw Libby Lu and began begging me to let her go. I didn't see any problem, us going into Libby Lu. I let her get out of her stroller and check everything out. Looking around, I thought this stuff is way too old for Katie right now. That is until I saw the Tutu. How cute! I showed it to Katie and she wanted to try it on. I figured it was too big, so I checked out the size and to my surprise it was a size 3. I couldn't get over it. By the time I had to tutu in my hand for Katie to try it on, she was interested in something else. I found some cute Styrofoam microphones. I showed them to Katie and she got so excited. She knew just what to do with it. There was music playing inside the store, so she started dancing and singing in her microphone. The microphone she had looked like it had been played with too much, so I convinced Katie to pick out another one that was in much better shape. She said she wanted it, so I let her pay for it with her own money. By the time we made it to the Children's Department at Belk, Doug called. He was waiting to pick us up.

We got to Toys R Us and I could notice Katie was getting hungry and tired. If we were going to Toys R Us, we had to go then before it got too dark because it is located on the bad side of town. As soon as we walked in the store, Katie began begging me to get her out of the cart. She wanted to walk and play with the toys. I gave her the listening and minding speech before I allowed her to get out of the cart. Doug was getting bored, so he went back to the car. Ugh! It was getting late and I couldn't get Katie away from the trains. I wanted to look at the swim shoes before we left the store and Katie was making it very hard for me to do that. She wouldn't hold on to the cart and she definitely was not going to sit in the cart without having a melt down. I was loosing my patience quickly. I finally put Katie back into the cart because she wasn't minding me. Melt down city! I didn't care who was watching, I wasn't having a little brat on my hands. I smacked her little leg and told her we were leaving. She calmed down a little, so I got to look at the swim shoes before we left. I grabbed the Little Mermaid sandals and headed for the check out. I think the shoes will work real good for Katie both on sand and water. What I really liked is they were 40% off the original price. I paid $7 for them. I'm slowly getting the things we need for our trip. I get really excited when I find good deals like Katie's $4 sun hat and $7 sandals. Tehe!

Doug wanted to eat Supper at either Cracker Barrel or Greenbrier BBQ. I was still trying to calm down after the episode Katie pulled at Toys R Us. I get so aggravated. She does so good at home and like this past week with the whole swimming lessons. Then, she pulls stuff like she did last night. Ugh! I just can't let her out in public, but I know I've got to or she won't learn. We ended up going to Cracker Barrel and she continued to push my buttons. She wanted to play with the lantern on the table and begged for me to let her go see the toys. I explained to her that she wouldn't be seeing any toys tonight because the way she acted at Toys R Us. Then, she announced that she had to go potty. I took her to the restroom and no sooner I got the potty ready for her to sit on it, she started crying and saying that she didn't have to go potty. Ugh! Serenity Now! We got washed up and went back to the table. It wasn't long before she said she had to go potty again. "You've got to be kidding me!" I busted her bubble by telling her "no". I was so ready to leave and go home. I kept smacking her little leg because she acted like an acrobat in the chair most of the time. I told Doug on the way home, our life as we know it is gone. I told him that we can't sit in a restaurant for next 10 years with her. He hopes that by the time she's 13 years old, we might be able to sit inside a restaurant again.

Looking for Solutions To A Toddler's Bad Attitude
Okay, I've noticed the past couple of months that Katie is changing. Yes, she's smart as a whip, but she has developed this attitude problem. She uses words like "now" and "I want" with a tone in her voice. BRAT! I'm trying to remind myself that she has learned this from me, other children and television. So, I have to curve this learning experience by the way I talk to her (saying please and thank you more often) and correct her every time she starts this bad attitude. Well as you can tell, it's been hard. Plus, I've been using excuses to cover it up. With Mom being in such bad shape these past few months, Katie's been passed around and there were times when I didn't see her for days. So much has been going on like Doug's birthday party and the Keyes families coming to AL, this has caused me to be lax with her. Letting her get away with murder, in other words. Since our life is pretty much back to normal, it's time to get a hold of this attitude problem. I've tried the naughty chair, switches, bribes and now the reward jar. I'm using this method from the "Supernanny" off of television. We'll see how it works. We started it this morning and Katie seems very excited.

The rules for the Reward Jar:

1. Every time she says "Please" or 'Thank You" without me reminding her to say these words, she gets a stone put in her jar.
2. Every time she goes to the potty (poo-poo or pee-pee), she gets a stone put in her jar.
3. If she helps Mom around the house without me reminding her or forcing her to clean up, she gets a stone put in her jar.
4. Anytime she does something nice and not bad, she gets a stone put in her jar.
5. If she's bad (talking back, saying "no"), she gets a warning and if she continues, a stone comes out of her jar and back in the bag.
6. If all the stones in the bag are in her jar, she will get to do something special. She could do something reasonable like: go to the park, visit the bounce house, go to the toy store, etc.

I'm trying not to make it too hard, so it can be encouraging for her. We started this morning around 9:00. It's 1:00 in the afternoon and she already has 7 stones in her jar. When she does remember to say "please," she gets excited and she tells me that she gets a rock put in her jar. I let her take the rock from the bag and put into her jar. I've only had to warn her about two different things. I really hope it works or we might have to resort to the belt. I'm hoping to get this problem corrected soon.

Katie's New Phrase
"Don't sas me boy, I know karate!" Okay, she can't say "karate" very well but I know what she's saying because she got this phrase from "Meet The Robinsons". She'll say it out of the blue and I have to fight off the smile or giggle because she does it so good. I just wish, right now, she would come up with a better saying. Especially now that we are working on her manners. Ugh!

Day Four of Swimming Lessons

Katie's Swimming Lessons
Katie didn't learn anything new today, but she is doing better with using her arms to get her where she needs to go. RuthAnne wanted her to do her humming, while pouring water over her head. Katie told RuthAnne, "no, I think I'm done". RuthAnne laughed and told her that she had to do it one more time. Katie didn't throw a fit, but she was in an arguing mood today that was for sure. I say that because she's been arguing with me most of the day. When I came to pick Katie up from her lesson, she decided that she didn't want to leave the pool right then. So, RuthAnne and I caught up on a little chit chat. She also wanted to try a life jacket on Katie, but the jackets want to ride up underneath Katie's neck. Katie seems to do really well with the swim belts. What I really like about the belt, RuthAnne uses on Katie is that you can add or take floats off of the belt. RuthAnne said that as Katie gets older, she won't need all the floats on the belt. So neat! I told RuthAnne about me finding a swim belt online, but it didn't look like the one she's been using in class. Plus, they ran any where between $17.95 to $22. She said she spent $9 for her belt from Flag House. I checked it out but the shipping and handling is a little high ($10). Thus far, this is the cheapest place that I've found the swim belts. The other places I've checked out cost around $22 plus shipping. I'll probably have to just go with Flag House.

Tomorrow is Katie's last day of swimming lessons. In a way, I'm glad because getting up at 6:28 in the morning is for the birds. I haven't been able to stay up late, like I normally do. I had a hard time getting Katie to go to bed, so I let her stay up until 10:00 before going to bed. She cried all the way to her bedroom. I told her that tomorrow was her last day at swimming lessons. She told me that she didn't want to go to her swimming lesson. She was heart broken, so I had to remind her that we might go to the Disney Store this weekend. Poor baby, she thought I was taking away her reward. She said, "I wanna go to Disney pweese. I be good."

At the beginning of the week, Katie and I made an agreement. If she would listen to Mrs. Knight and me this week, we would go to the Disney Store as a reward. They've got some Summer products on sale right now. Katie loves her Ariel flip flops and I noticed online that they are on sale for $2.99. I'd like to get her another pair for next Summer. Katie also needs some short sleeve nightgowns. I'm hoping to find a couple on sale.

What's New Around the Mason Household?
Laura - well, you can add us to the "Why?" club now. As I told you earlier, Katie was in an arguing mood. Every argument ended with "why? But why Mom?" We were outside this evening helping Daddy clean up the yard (mowing the lawn, pick up sticks, spray for weeds in the driveway, etc.). Katie got filthy. So while Daddy finished up mowing, I put Katie in the tub. The questions started . . . "why do I have to take a bath?" I caught her drinking the water. I told her not to drink the bath water. She asked, "why mom?" Like a patient Mother, I went into explaining why it's so dirty. Her next question, "why is it dirty?" I explained further. Another question, "why am I dirty?" Finally, after the tenth question, I pulled out the Mommy card "because . . ." Tonight, I heard "why" so many times that my voice was getting horse and then I had to pull out the card again "because I said so that's why". Of course, you have to expect the next sentence from a 3 year old is "but why?" Ugh! All you can do is laugh about it.

She is loving bunny rabbits right now. She has them keep her company while she sleeps. They join her when we are on the road. When we look at toys, she asks to see the bunnies. In fact, she told me that she wants to get a bunny from the Disney store. We'll see.

Update on Mom
After Katie's swimming lessons, we went to the Nursing Home to visit Mom. We walked in to catch her, sitting in her wheelchair, putting on her make-up. She was so happy and cheerful. She seemed very glad to see us. She asked Katie if she would want to go for a ride. Katie hopped up on her lap and away we went down the halls. Mom filled me in on all the Nursing Home gossip. Tehe! We ran into Ms. Opaline and spoke with her for a little bit. She is such a sweet woman and she told me that she would keep an eye out for Mom. I am relieved to hear it. We talked about the Bible Study and told Mom the time and place it is held. I really hope Mom will try to attend and get out of her room a little more. She has this wooden board at the foot of her bed. I asked her about it. She said it is a sliding board. She uses it to get in and out of the bed and into her wheelchair. This is used so she doesn't have to depend on someone to help her into the chair. What a great idea!?!

Sandy - I'm sorry about Mom not talking to you today. She felt like talking, so I grabbed my phone to call you up and my phone was dead. I never knew that it had gone dead. I'm so sorry. I did print out the message you sent out for us to relay it to Mom. Fortunately, Mom said Nicholas read it to her the other day.

Doug's Work
I was suppose to report this news yesterday, but I forgot. Doug's group at work had an office party. Of course, he made his famous Buffalo Chicken Dip, Chips and Bush's Grillin' Beans. He said the party was a great success. He brought home absolutely no leftovers. Darn! I asked him what was the special occasion? He said it was just because.

Katie's Birthday Party


I got Katie's "Fancy Nancy" party supplies in yesterday. They are so cute! I didn't get to show Katie because when they arrived, she was taking a nap. After her nap, we went for a walk around the neighborhood that took us an hour. By the time we made it back home, Doug got home and I got distracted. Well, I showed it to her this evening. At first, she didn't know what she was looking at. All I asked her was "who is that on the plate and napkins?" Finally, it sunk in. Cheerfully, she answered that it was her "Fancy Nancy." On the couch, she whispered in my ear "we gonna have a Fancy Nancy party?" I agreed with her and she got so excited that she started giggling.

Doug and Peggy have been talking to me about having a cookout. I figured we would just have cake and ice cream this year, but we might be cookin' some dawgs on the grill or something to that affect. I've been asking Doug every other day, what's the plan? Right now, he can't give me a solid answer. He said, he would let me know something a week before the party. Isn't that nice of him? It's just too sweet for words. Can ya hear the sarcasm in my voice?

Katie Uses Flippers Today

Katie's Swimming Lesson
Today, Katie learned to swim around the pool with flippers. She kicked around with them on, but didn't care for them much. She's using her arms more. RuthAnne wants me to help Katie practice keeping her mouth closed by humming. She said that if I tell her to hum that she will focus on the humming and not realize that her mouth is closed. I tried the humming with Katie. She did it, but she told me, "Mommy it's too hard". I'm guessing that she is referring to when she has to hum while swimming.

There are a few elderly men and women that swim in the pool the same time Katie is in there with them. When we walked into the pool area this morning, a couple of women both said "there's Katie". RuthAnne told me that Katie is very social with the other swimmers. When I picked up Katie later, I could sense that RuthAnne felt a little disgusted with all the people going in and out of the pool. They were talking to Katie and she was too busy watching other people rather than listening to RuthAnne. I asked her if there were a lot of disturbances and she agreed immediately.

Tomorrow, RuthAnne wants to try the life jacket with Katie and see how it works with her. She also wants to work on her humming and reaching with her arms. Hopefully, there won't be that many disturbances this time.

Katie's New Fishing Game
Liz - guess what? I finally found the fishing game. I've been looking for it, but I never found it in stock at Walmart and Target. I had thought about giving Katie the fishing game for her birthday, but she was so excited about going swimming that I couldn't get her to calm down. I brought out the game and she loved it. She had to play a few times before we left and again after we got back from her swimming lesson.

I also was told to get the Elefun that the kids love catching butterflies. We'll have to see. Oh I found this neat View Finder. Every time you change the picture in the View Finder, it has sound. So neat! They also make a projector version of it for $20. The View Finders with sound run around $10.

Funny Story

Okay, I have to add this funny story. As a Southern Lady, I understand that the story, I'm about to tell you, isn't very couth; however, it's a must read.

An hour ago, Katie and I were in the floor playing with puzzles. I got a whiff of something dreadful, like a dirty diaper. Shoo, wee! I asked Katie if she poo-peed in her pull-ups. I asked her, "do I need to change you?" Without skipping a beat, she turned to me and said "no Mom! I not poo-peed in my pants. It's just grass. It's okay Mom, it's just grass comes out my bottom. That's all." I howled because I knew what she was talking about. While she was telling me this, I was checking her pull-up. Sure enough, she had just passed gas or as she calls it "grass". Doug was in his chair, he missed what she was saying and all I could do was laugh. I tried to correct her to say gas and not grass. Since she saw that I was laughing, she started laughing.

Katie, you never know what's going to come out of her mouth. She is such a ham.

Proud Momma

Katie's Swimming Lesson
Today was a little easier getting Katie ready for her lesson. Yeah, she bucked me a little putting on her swim suit because she wanted to wear a dress. She didn't pitch near the fit she did yesterday, thank God above. By 8:45 this morning, she was ready to go, literally. She kept trying to get me up out of the chair, "let's go Mom. I'm ready to go swim". As soon as we got to the pool, she went straight for RuthAnne and never looked back. She was ready to start again this morning. Wow! Thirty minutes just doesn't last long, especially when you can go back home to do a few things. The sports club is maybe 5 minutes away from our house. Actually, Katie got a little over 30 minutes worth of training because we got to the club about 7 minutes early and RuthAnne was ready for her. Okay! When I got back, RuthAnne and Katie had lots to show me that she's learned today. Well, her showing me all she's learned took about 10 minutes. I was able to chit chat with RuthAnne a little more today. I asked her about her classes, like how many children she instructs a day. She said that she has one big class early in the morning and then the one on one after that. She said that she works a total of 2 hours (4 classes) a day. You know, I got to thinking and RuthAnne is doing pretty good. Because if she works 2 hours a day and $15 a head per day. Wow! But you know, she works really well with kids. She has tons of patience and they listen to her.

I was such a proud Momma today. RuthAnne kept praising and praising Katie and her fast learning. She said that Katie really listened today, a lot better than she did yesterday. Sure enough, RuthAnne would tell Katie to do something and buddy she did it. I was empressed! Katie learned to hold her breath and go under water, keep her mouth shut when swimming or reaching for something under water. She was using her arms more while swimming. She was also swimming and floating on her back. I couldn't get over watching Katie kicking while floating on her back. That's even hard for some adults to do. Of course, RuthAnne was holding on to her back, but still with her kicking like that keeping a float was something. I think Katie's favorite thing to do was blowing bubbles with a straw into the water. I don't know if RuthAnne was going on about Katie because she's my friend, but she told me that she would like to see Katie in her big swimming class next year. That is if Katie would be interested because she is such a good swimmer. She said that Katie had been going at it hard from the time I left to the time I got back. She asked, "she's none stop isn't she?" I was telling RuthAnne about how we are going to enroll Katie into ballet this Fall. I told her about how she walks, runs and hops on her toes. RuthAnne interrupted me and said she noticed the toe thing in the water. She said that's how she kicks her feet, with her toes pointed. I told her that's how she's always been since she learned how to walk. She thinks she should do good in ballet just because the way she is so athletic. I told her, Katie being in ballet should really build her muscles up. This might help her, if she decides that she wants to go into the big swimming class next year. Okay, that's enough bragging.

Katie gave RuthAnne a high five as we were heading to the dressing rooms. Katie told me, "Mom, I come back tomorrow. Okay?" I assured her that we would be coming back to see Mrs. Knight. I don't know what I'm going to do when swimming classes are over because she has really enjoyed this a lot better than what I expected.



Girl With 8 Limbs
Have you seen this little girl? Lakshmi Tatma was born with 4 arms and 4 legs. According to the National Geographic, she was carrying a rare parasitic twin that could possibly kill her. The twin was attached to her pelvic. I saw on the commercial, advertising this story, where locals thought she resembled their 8 limbed goddess. I can't remember the name of this mythical creature. Lakshmi underwent surgery and had all 4 limbs removed. National Geographic went behind the scenes of the operation and the media firestorm that makes Lakshmi famous throughout the world. This story will be aired Sunday, June 22nd at 8:00 p.m.

Air It Out
I've been couragous about the FunZone Air It Out in town. I know that inside the building, it contains all kinds of inflatables that kids can jump around in it. I've always heard about it, so Katie and I finally found the time to stop by and find out more information. They were real nice. Fortunately, there is no age limit just a weight limit. You can bounce around in the inflatables for either 30 minutes or an hour at a time. The parents can either go in to watch the children playing or you can go in and play with them. Thirty minutes of playing is $3.50 each person. If everything goes alright next week, I think going to Air It Out would be a good Mommy and Me time.

After the swim lessons are over, I'm going to have to be creative in other way to keep Katie active. I've thought about going on picnics with her, but it's so hot and it's not even officially summer yet. She seemed to really enjoy our time at Sportsman's Lake a couple of weeks ago. We might have to revisit this park more often.

Book-A-Million Offer
I received a notice yesterday that BAM is having a One Day Sale on Saturday, June 21st. Buy 2 books and get a 3rd one free. I'm sure there are a select few books with this offer. If there are some that strike your interest, it would be worth it. Also, they are having a Summer Bargain Book Clearance Sale that you could save up to 80%.

Belk Stores
Just in case you didn't know, Belk is having a 50% off sale starting Friday, June 20th. If you get a coupon by email or delivery mail you could get an extra 15% off the sale price. If you get a red dot clearance that's 45-65% off the original price, plus you can get an extra 30% off the sale price. Man, there are good deals every where. Belk Sale Coupon

Katie's First Day At Swimming Lessons

Okay, I just knew this was going to be a typical Monday for me. As you know, I put Katie to bed early last night. I knew this morning was going to kill her, getting up so early. I got up around 6:30 and got ready for the day. I waited until 7:30 before I woke Katie up. By 7:50, I had to go into her room and practically pull her out of the bed and set her on the toilet. She whined and cried the whole time. I've never seen so many different faces all at once within the a minute's time. You talk about, if looks could kill. After she pee-peed in the potty, the next task was getting her off the toilet. Ugh! When I finally got her off the pot, she wouldn't cooperate with me for nothing. I just left her in the hallway, laying on the floor, crying and whining. I started talking up, her going swimming. As much as she loves swimming, I thought this would perk her up just a little. Nope! It wasn't going to happen today. She announced out loud that she wasn't going swimming and she was going to wear a dress, not her swimming suit. She cried and pitched a fit all morning because she didn't feel like going swimming this early in the morning. I was so hoping that she would get better by the time we got there.

I wanted to get to the sport's club a little early, so I could introduce Katie to RuthAnne. Usually, it takes a little while before Katie warms up to strangers. When we got to the pool, RuthAnne was at the end of instructing a little boy. Katie was excited by that time. I was afraid she would jump right in because that's what Leslie was teaching Katie at June and Pat's pool a couple of weekends ago. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait around until Katie warmed up to RuthAnne. She went right to her and got into the water. RuthAnne told me, she'll see me in 30 minutes. Well, okay. That was my cue to be on my way. I wanted to take the camera in with me to take a few pictures, but I was afraid that they wouldn't allow it for security reasons. I got back a little early, so I could take a picture with my cell phone.

RuthAnne said Katie was a fast learner and very athletic. I asked her how it went, it being her first day. RuthAnne said she did really well. The only areas she wants to focus on is getting her to use her arms more and listening. I told her about us trying to teach Katie to kick her legs more. RuthAnne told me that she's got the kicking down pat, now she needs to use her arms. I asked her if it was from the floaties, she's been wearing because I notice with her that she can't move her arms good with them on her. RuthAnne agreed and advised me to throw the floaties away. She suggested a flotation belt or life jacket. I liked the swim belt she had on her because it has several layers of individual foam. As she gets better throughout the years, you can take out a layer of foam at a time. You can't do take with a life jacket. RuthAnne told Katie to show me how to swim. Sure enough, her feet were just a going and she was standing straight up, but her arms stayed right beside her. Then, they practiced pouring water over each other's head. Katie would put her hands over her face until RuthAnne stopped pouring water over her head. I was so proud of my little girl. Katie didn't want to leave, she wanted to play some more in the water. RuthAnne told her that she'll see her again tomorrow. Her eyes lite up and she repeated what RuthAnne said. It was so cute. Out to the truck, Katie kept saying, "Mom, I come and play in the pool tomorrow". Her bad mood this morning turned into smiles this afternoon. I was so relieved.

Happy Father's Day

I hope all of you fathers had a great day. We started off by worshiping and thanking our Heavenly Father for all of his blessings. I have to confess that I wasn't paying 100% attention because Katie started her new class today and I was concerned if everything was going okay with her. The 2 year old class is being over run with babies moving up from the 1 year old class. Most of Katie's friends have already moved up to the 3 year old class months ago. We held her back because of the whole potty training thing. She still wears pull-ups, but she doesn't like to go potty unless it's 9:30 at night. We went ahead and made the plunge, moving her into the 3 year old class. I took her to classroom and she knew it looked different. She stuck to me like Velcro and began crying, since I was peeling her off of me. I told the teachers that I was going to peel her off and hit the door. If they needed me, just page me. I had been watching the screen the whole worship hour. I just knew I was going to get paged because she was having a fit when I left. Fortunately, she did good and had a ball. When we went to pick her up, she was hiding from me under the table. She's into the hiding phase right now. All she had on was her pull-up and shirt. The teacher told me that Katie got into the fountain and was soaking wet. Okay, this image came to me that Katie got away from her teacher and went straight for the water fountain. Later, I found out through my friend, Stacey, that the teacher let the children in Katie's class sit along the outside water fountain and put their feet in it. Okay, this made more sense because her pants and shirt were soaking wet. The news spread like wildfire throughout the church about Katie getting into the fountain. Stacey said the teacher wasn't suppose to let the children play in the fountain and that it wouldn't happen again. I assured her that we were not upset with the teacher. I found it humorous. It's just something to tell Katie when she gets older. How she ran around with a pull-up and shirt because she jumped into the fountain, got soaking wet and how the whole church found out about it.

We spent lunch time with Peggy and Millard. We had hot dogs, hamburgers and smoked sausage. Henry and Keisha joined us for lunch. Everything was delicious! We had this internal joke going on from yesterday. Doug was being picked on by one of us and we would smile and tell him "Happy Father's Day!" Then, he would pick on me and I'd wish him a "Happy Father's Day." Finally, Doug and Peggy would pick on Millard and I would tell him, "Happy Father's Day." It got to be a joke after a while. Peggy would start laughing at us. Well, we had to continue our little joke today. Us women were sitting at the table eating, Millard and Doug had to get up to get something to drink. Peggy asked Millard to get her something and while smiling she said, "Happy Father's Day." Doug was up cleaning off the tables and throwing trash away, I told him "Happy Father's Day." You had to be there. Peggy and I were rolling. Poor Henry, I don't think he knew what was going on.


Millard and Peggy fixed Katie a real nice swing set. Millard sand blasted it and re-painted it a pretty red and white. Last night, they picked up the swing from Toys R Us. He did a very good job. Henry announced that all it needs on it is a "Roll Tide" or a big "A". Katie absolutely loves it. All she wanted to do was have Paw-Paw Millard push her in the swing. We tried to teach her how to push herself in the swing, but I guess it was easier if Paw-Paw pushed her. I've got several pictures that I'll post on the photosite for you to see. Poor Paw-Paw got tired quick standing and pushing her, so he got a chair to sit in. Too cute.

Henry's cat had kittens yesterday. Doug wanted to take Katie over to his house to see the kittens and see his trailer. I thought it would be a good experience for her. She was in awe. When I finally made it over to his house, she was all squatted down on the porch looking at the kittens. She said, "look at the kitties Mommy!" Doug didn't want her getting too close for fear of the Momma cat getting nervous. Henry said this was the cat's first litter of kittens.

We left Millard and Peggy's house around 5:00-5:30 to go visit my Dad for a little bit. I called his house and June answered the phone. She said he just left to visit Mom at the Nursing Home and wouldn't be back until around 7:00. Doug suggested that we just drop some things off at the house and go on to the Nursing Home to visit. That sounded great to me. I guess we got there around 6:00. Both Mom and Dad seemed to be in very good moods. I was so glad to see it. With all the stress and worry in my family and life right now, it's been hard to see a smile and bright eyes lately. They both seemed very happy to see us. It made my heart sing to see Mom so happy. She said she had a real good day today. If you don't already know, they had to put the feeding tube back in Mom's stomach. They weighed her the other day and according to their scales, she lost 9 lbs. They felt it best that she have the feeding tube put back in because of her being so weak. Dad seems to think that their scales might be off because the nurse told him that Mom weighed 160 lbs. If that's truly her weight, then she's gained a lot of weight since the hospital. When she was in CICU, I believe she weighed around 140 lbs. Go figure! After an hour, I could see Mom getting tired. I've noticed that she can only handle company an hour at a time before she gets real tired. Dad was ready to leave, so we said our goodbyes and followed him out to the truck. I know I look awful in the pictures, but you try to look nice after a very long hot day with your little girl mashing your hair down and rubbing your makeup off of your face.

I had Katie go to bed early because tomorrow starts her swimming lessons. I wanted her to be refreshed and ready to go. I'll let you know how the first day went.

An Alternative Solution to My Problem

I haven't found a solution to the ice cream cones not becoming soft, but I did find another alternative. Since I'll be using the "Fancy Nancy Bonjour, Butterfly" book as a centerpiece, I found a recipe from Betty Crocker to make a butterfly cake. Looking at the picture, it looks difficult. Actually, the decorating sounds easy with pastel sugar sprinkles, candy and decorator gel. It's something to think about.

Need Advice on Ice Cream Cup Cakes

Need Some Advice
Okay, I need tips from you Mom's that have made these Ice Cream Cup Cakes. The box of Joy brand name Ice Cream Cups recommended, I store the cakes in a specially designed container. The container lifts the cups off of it's base/stem. The only way I could store the cakes were in a tall Tupperware cake dome and large cookie tin. I waited until I knew the cakes were cold before I put the lids on the containers. This morning, I was getting some ready to take to the Nursing Home. I noticed some of the cups were really soft and with them standing free, looks like it put strain on the base/stem of the cup. I can't make these if this happens every time. Unless I hear a cure, I'm going to have to resort to making cupcakes instead. Please let me know.

Update On Mom
Katie and I got to visit Mom this afternoon. We tried to get there before lunch, but it just wasn't happening. Katie's not much into eating breakfast and I had a terrible time getting her to eat before we left. We left the house around 11:30 and Katie decided that she wanted a hamburger and fries. Ugh! Yes, I did say a hamburger. She's discovered that hamburgers are really good. We ended up getting to the Nursing Home a little late for lunch. In fact, Mom was out and about in her new electric wheelchair. The staff feel that if Mom could get an electric wheelchair, she might be able to wheel around on her own throughout the home and not be stuck in bed. Mom feels a little down because of it, but I told her that this is to help her get around a little easier and not a device to prevent her from trying to walk. She said that she's spoke to a few other women and they've helped her deal with it. I told her how pleased I was to see her rolling up and down the hallway because I'm afraid she is getting depressed. She says she's not, but I really feel that she might be. She said that she's visiting her friend, Opaline, this morning and plans to start attending her bible study group. She's going to find out what time the study group meets and make sure she doesn't have therapy at that time. We stayed a little over an hour and I could see she was beginning to get tired on us.

CPSC Recall Notice
Children's Overalls Recalled by Sara Lynn Togs Due to Choking Hazard - http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08304.html

Tequila and Salt
This should probably be taped to your bathroom mirror where one could read it every day. You may not realize it, but it's 100% true.
1. There are at least two people in this world that you would die for.
2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. You are special and unique.
8. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you.
9. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.
10 When you think the world has turned its back on you take another look.
11 Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.

I received the above from Laura and wanted to share it with you because it is so true.

Ice Cream Cup Cakes

Okay, so I've seen a few blog posts where people add pictures to their cooking creations. Of course, I had to do one as well. I have to say, it was pretty fun documenting my cooking experience. I'll have to do it again. Ha! Ha!


I started off with your basic ingredients to make a cake batter. Follow the instructions from the cake box. What's really nice is the ice cream cups that I purchased had the directions on the side on how to make ice cream cup cakes. This is so cool because I've never heard of it until now. Look what I've missed out on.


After you make your batter, place the ice cream cups in muffin trays. I used a regular table spoon and spooned the batter into the cups 3/4 full. I would recommend filling it up just a little bit more.


Katie had to get in on the action. I had one tray already in the oven and we were waiting for the next tray to go in. I ended up making 3 dozen according to the directions. I think when I remake them for Katie's birthday, I'm going to fill the cups up a little more than the directions tell.


I baked each tray for 15 minutes at a time on 350 degrees. Make sure the toothpick comes out clean. Then, you are ready to ice and decorate the cakes. Katie got a little excited because it was time to decorate. I figured the cups would burn in the oven, so I was surprised to see that they were not. I also like that the cups soften up a little, which is good. This way when you bite into the cup, it won't be so hard that it cuts the roof of your mouth.



Here is our finished product. We are so proud of ourselves. We actually did it and it wasn't hard at all to do. In the picture above, Katie is pointing to her Ice Cream Cup Cakes. She's so proud.



What an easy and delicious treat. My food critics agree. Tehe!