Katie's Slumber Party Weekend

"Warning: Exposure to the Son, may prevent from burning" 

While driving home from dropping Katie off at school, I passed a church that had this sentence on their sign.  It's one way of seeing it.  I had to share this with you.  

Katie was invited to a slumber party this past weekend. One of her friends from school last year moved to the Birmingham area. E's mom, Meredith and I tried to get the girls together before school started back up, but it just didn't work out. A couple of weeks ago, Meredith sent me a message asking if Katie could spend the night. It was E's birthday slumber party and she missed her friends. Knowing how my Katiebug can be, I didn't tell her about it until the night before the party. Of course, she went crazy. To see these two girls reunite just tugs at your heart. They missed each other so much. Knowing that I will be in Birmingham traffic, Doug wanted to come with me. I'm glad he did because it was real bad at times. We decided to leave as soon as we picked Katie up from school. Again, I'm glad we did! I'm talking about 6 lanes, bumper to bumper, traffic. We were all sitting still at times. Ugh! Fortunately, it wasn't the highway that was close to E's new house. Their highway had some traffic as well.

I got tickled at E's little brother.  He was standing at the top of the staircase, while I was taking pictures of the girls.  He wanted to be apart of the photo that he would say "cheeese!"  He is so darn cute.  I told little E that he could come and sit by his sissy and I would take his picture.  It didn't take him long.  In the picture, he was looking at his daddy saying "cheese."  He just turned two years old and wide open, like most boys.  He didn't skip a beat either, right in the middle of whatever the girls were doing.  I think there ended up being 5 girls and little brother.  Katie absolutely loved their house because it had stairs.  LOL!  I was explaining to Meredith and Matt that Katie has given us her two cents worth when it comes to our next home purchase.  According to her, it is mandatory that we have some stairs and an in ground pool in the back yard.  HAHA!  She's our Katie, what can I say?    

It was great to catch up with E's parents and some other friends, I haven't seen in about a month. We had the opportunity to meet their families, very sweet and funny people. We decided not to stay for supper because we didn't have any kids with us. Can you say DATE NIGHT?!?   Matt and Meredith were disappointed we didn't stay, but understood completely. We really like Cajun Steamers Restaurant, but rarely get to eat there. Oh, it was so good. We ordered the Steamers Platter for two. It had snow crab legs and steamed shrimp for me.   Oysters and mussels for Doug. Happy Combination! We even got to do a little shopping, while in town.  I just hated that time flew by so fast and our date night ended so quickly.

Yesterday, I had to take this picture.  I'm telling you the iPad has been either a curse or the best purchase we've ever bought.  It depends on how you look at it.  It's suppose to be Katie's, but Colton has a tendency to sneak it away from Katie and play on it.  We've had to put down a few ground rules, which Colton doesn't like at all.  First, they are allowed to play on it for about an hour at a time.  I have extended that time, if I need to.  Secondly, they have to play a little bit on the apps that I downloaded for them.  The app games I have for both kids are very educational.  I think the kids relate the games to homework than having fun and meeting a challenge.  I'm still working on it though.  I bought an app for Colton to help him identify shapes, colors, numbers, letters and puzzles.  It has more educational parts to it like addition, subtraction, alphabet, and spelling, but we won't be using those right now.  I really like this app and it was $2.99.  So worth it!  Now, if I can get Colton to do games.  The only one he enjoys doing is the puzzles.  

The bad side about having the iPad is the kids fight over the stupid thing all the time.  When they start that's when I take it up and no one plays with it the rest of the day.  We thought the new of having the computer would wear off just a little bit.  NOPE!  They both LOVE it.  Then, I thought that once Katie  gets back in school, giving Colton time to himself with it, would help eliminate the fights.  NOPE!  It's sorta funny.  It's funny because if Katie is playing with it in her room and when she takes a potty break, Colton will run in her room, grab it and run back into the Living Room.  Of course when Katie gets back in her room, she's hollering for Colton to bring back her iPad.  She even asked me the other day, if we had plans to get Colton his own iPad.  I told her no because they cost too much.  She said, "well I really wish he would get his own because he thinks mine is his and it's not his."  LOL! 

Saturday after picking up Katie from her slumber party, we went shopping and I hope I'm not prematurely telling you that I went down a size in my waist.  YAY!  It's huge step for me and a big accomplishment. I hope I don't screw it up now.  Doug's lost so much weight that he really needs to do some clothes shopping as well, but he is not ready yet.  I understand completely.  I've been on and off diets since I graduated high school.  It is a yo-yo effect.  You lose 5 lbs and the next thing you know, you've gained 10 lbs.  This has been my life for several years.  If you are a woman then you understand what I'm talking about.  The only difference is most women will talk about it and men do not.  Normally when I go shopping for me, I never find anything.  I guess it was meant to be because I found some really nice tops and this pretty skirt that Doug REALLY likes on me.  (Grrr, Grr) 

I want to tell you how bad the mosquitoes are here.  Oh. my. gosh!  Y'all it was terrible yesterday afternoon.  Doug wanted to give me generator lessons, in case I need it and he is not home.  I grabbed my notebook from inside the house.  As soon as I stepped out the door, a swarm of mosquitoes were all over me.  They would not leave me alone.  They would get in my face and kept getting on my legs and arms.  A couple, I promise you, felt like they have teeth.  I don't swell up like Colton when I get bit, but I can't help but think of West Nile Virus.  I can't afford to get sick with two small children.  It just so happened at the time I was being attacked by mosquitoes, the city mosquitoes sprayer drove down our street.  I try to keep all standing water, dumped out.  I'll be a very happy girl when I see the first frost.  I'm hoping it won't be long now.  

Please keep my mom in your prayers.  She hasn't been feeling very well for almost a week.  Really bad stomach problems and just doesn't feel good.  She called the doctor today, to see what else she could do.  Afraid she might get dehydrated, Colton and I took her some Powerade Zero.  I told her to drink at least one container a day, but the doctor may want her to do more.  I don't think she's dehydrated yet because her mouth is still moist and she is still going to the bathroom.  She is just very weak and tired.  I will call and check on her tomorrow.  Hopefully she will feel better, but I would think that the doctor will want to see her.