Family Movie Night

I am not a junk food fanatic. Neither am I a health food nut. I have too many other things to worry about without having to worry about what the label says. I don't buy organic foods because it is too expensive. I don't like buying that many prepared foods because they are expensive. I like buying ingredients and cooking meals. I also do not deep fry foods because deep frying is so messy and I really like quick clean ups after I eat. I personally like a variety of vegetables and fruits but certain members of my family thinks that the only vegetables that should be eaten are corn, green beans and potatoes and the occasional bite of broccoli (and only if it is covered with cheese).

I said all that so I wouldn't feel so bad about our junk food binge this weekend (and most weekends). About a year or so ago, I declared that Friday nights are family nights. We actually don't have that hectic of a schedule compared to some but Kevin travels for his job one night a week and week nights have homework, baths and bedtime schedules. On Friday night, I plan a easy meal and it is usually pizza. Sometimes I will cook something but it might be pigs in blankety and rotel dip, stromboli or some other kind of finger food. We have a Netflix account and we get a family friendly movie and watch the movie while we eat our dinner. That is our family movie night. It is my favorite night of the week.

We have been a little distracted for the past few weekends so we haven't had a Family Movie Night in awhile. I was happy that this Friday night was free of distractions so I planned a good old fashion junk food night. I bought a pizza AND cheese bread from Papa Murphey's. I love Papa Murphey's pizza. You buy the pizza and you have to cook it at home. The pizza is delicious and very affordable. Much cheaper then most of the bigger pizza chains and you get the eat the pizza hot out of the oven.

Our movie was the 1975 Disney classic Escape to Witch Mountain. I wasn't sure if the kids would enjoy the movie but I wanted to watch it before we watch the recent release of Race to Witch Mountain. The acting was not very good and the special effects were pretty bad but we loved the movie. The kids watched the whole thing and we had some good laughs. The next movie on our Netflix list is the 1978 Return From Witch Mountain and we are looking forward to seeing it.

This morning I had to continue our junk food binge. I woke up way too early and really wanted some donuts. When Faith woke up at 7:30, we got dressed quickly and quietly and snuck out and bought Dunkin Donuts and some chocolate milk (which we did bring home for all of us to enjoy). So our Saturday morning started out with yummy donuts which are definitely NOT good for your waistline.

It is a beautiful day for the month of August. The temperature is suppose to stay in the 80's today. This evening we are getting together with the rest of the family to celebrate Grandmommy's birthday. We will be eating at Wasabi Hibatchi Grilll (more yummy food that I will eat too much of) and then we will go back to their house for cake and ice cream (Publix's cake that is too good).

Now, I need to get up and get dressed and go enjoy this beautiful Saturday!!!!!

In the Good Old Summertime

What a summer! It is the first day of school today and Faith started FOURTH Grade!!!! She is in Mrs. Christian's class this year. She had been originally assigned to another teacher but when we got to school this morning, she had been moved to another class. I think she will be okay with this because she had wanted Mrs. Christian in the first place. I hope it didn't make her too nervous to be expecting one teacher and end up with another teacher. Did I mention she was in FOURTH grade. It was just yesterday that she went to kindergarten, see...
This will be her last year at Coles Ferry Elementary. Next year she will go to Castle Heights Upper Elementary but John Derrick will start Kindergarten at Coles Ferry. I am already getting weepy eyed about John Derrick going to school. Kids just grow up way too fast. I miss my babies. I am already forgetting what it was like to hold them in my arms. Kevin and I are done having babies so I have to be content to watch my beautiful children grow and mature and try to enjoy every moment that I can.

Like I said, this has been a crazy summer. Summer break has always had a wild effect on the kids. I have always tried to keep the kids busy so we are not sitting around watching TV all summer long. We would do the library summer reading program, go swimming, go to the movies, do VBS, and try to go on a picnic. It always seemed so chaotic and when school would start there would be a since of peace for a few weeks while Faith settled into a school routine and John Derrick would enjoy a few weeks of doing nothing before he started back to Mother's Day Out.

This summer had the same wild effect on the kids except we did not do much this summer. We only made it to the library a few times this summer. I only went swimming once with the kids. We didn't get to see one free movie and the kids went to VBS but I didn't help this year. I spent most of my summer recovering from two different surgeries. The kids did get to spend a lot of time with Grandmommy and Granddaddy and several different babysitters while I went to doctor's appointments. I did have a lot of good feeling days this summer but I just didn't try to do anything and unfortantly the kids watched a lot of TV and played on the computer most of the time. I think I slept in almost every single days except those days that I went to the doctor. There were days that I would wake up at would wake up at 8:30 in the morning, feed the kids breakfast, waste the WHOLE morning doing nothing, take a shower around 10:30, and then feed the kids lunch just to sit around and do nothing some more. What a waste of time. Poor kids, I was beginning to think that they liked when I went to the doctor just so they could go somewhere.

Well, we did do a couple of things this summer. We went to the beach. John Derrick got to sleep over at a friend's house for the first time. Faith got to sleep over a few times at friend's house. We went to the lake for the fourth of July. We went to a Nashville Sounds Game for Kevin's Father's Day present. We took a Saturday and discovered a place in Kentucky called Kentucky Down Under. We got to feed exotic birds and pet a kangeroo. It was a really neat place and the kids had a lot of fun. I took the kids one day to the Discovery Museum in Murfreesboro just to get out of the house for the day. So while we wasted most of summer doing nothing, we did do a few fun things. Next summer will be different, that is a promise.
Pe.tting one of the kangeroos at Kentucky Down Under. This is a male kangeroo. We saw a mommy kangeroo with a baby in her pouch. I was not able to get a picture of her but it was so neat to see.
The picture of Kevin and I that Faith took.
Kevin and John Derrick feeding a bird at Kentucky Down Under.


Faith making a bowl out of cloth and glue at the Discovery Museum.
John Derrick and his tongue sticking out. He was really concentrating at what he was doing at the Discovery Museum.
This was John Derrick's favorite thing at the Discovery Museum. He could change the tires and muffler and add "fluids" to the car. His tongue was stuck out most of the time while he was "working" on the car.
Although the Discovery Museum is geared toward slightly younger kids, Faith had a lot of fun. I am glad that she doesn't think she is "too cool" for things like this. It helps keep her little just a little longer.

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks...

Father's Day snuck up on me this year. I was not able to get out and go shopping and I just did not have to energy to think of something. This sounds horrible but Kevin understood and did not expect anything for Father's Day. I was not going to let that happen. I wanted to do something special for Kevin but like I said I just could not think of anything.

The week before Father's Day, Kevin was out of town and I asked the kids what they wanted to get Daddy. Faith came up with the best idea. She suggested going to a baseball game. She really meant to go see a Chicago Cubs game. Well, Chicago was a little too far away and Atlanta had already played Chicago so we could not go there. So we decided to go to a Nashville Sounds game. The last time we went to a Sounds game was back in 2005 when Faith was 5 years old and John Derrick was a baby in fact, he did not even go to the game.

We went to the game and it was HOT but exciting. The Sounds played Oklahoma City. We won 11 to 3. We ate all the junk food that you are suppose to eat at baseball games like hot dogs, peanuts, cotton candy and Cokes. After the games, there were fireworks and they allowed kids to come out and run the bases. Both Faith and John Derrick ran. John Derrick was too funny because his shorts were a little big in the waist and he was running hard and hitching up his shorts at the same time.

John Derrick was determined to have cotton candy at the game. We walked in and that was all he wanted. He kept asking when the cotton candy man was going to get there. Finally the man showed up and he got his cotton candy. Notice his sweaty hair. It was very hot and humid at the game.
Here's Faith when she was 5 years old eating cotton candy at her first Nashville Sounds game. Below is Faith this time at age 9 eating her cotton candy. Boy she has grown up so much.

Prayer Request

Please keep my cousin Laura Beth's little girl, Carolina in your prayers. She is being treated for Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) which is a bleeding condition in which the blood doesn’t clot as it should.

You can read about Carolina on Laura Beth's Blog, high on life

A Funny Quote

I just had to share something John Derrick said to me this morning. He can say some of the funniest things. This morning he came to me and told me, "I love tomorrow. Right now it is today and not tomorrow."

He told me that because he is going through the "I don't wanna take a bath" phase. We have been completely off routine since I have not been able to do much and he is taking full advantage of that. Last night all of us were completely exhausted. The kids had been away all day playing with a friend, I had visitors most of the afternoon, and I found out that I would need more surgery so we were completely drained. When he started fussing about taking a bath, we gave in and told him that he would have to take a bath tomorrow. That cheered him up and he was fine.

Now he is going to convince us that he can wait to tomorrow to take a bath instead of today...

A Beach Vacation!!

We went on a mini vacation to Fort Walton Beach this Memorial Day Weekend. We had to get away before our summer got messed up by my surgery. We did a little internet surfing and found a condo on Okaloosa Island at Fort Walton Beach. The kids absolutely had a wonderful time. We got there on Friday afternoon and was able to spend a little time on the beach. Saturday morning, we woke up to a thunderstorm. That was a little disappointing but by lunch it had stopped raining and we were able to get out and play. It was very cloudy and windy but that didn't stop us from having fun. Sunday was a nice sunny day and we had a nice afternoon on the beach and that evening we took a walk down the beach. Of course on Monday morning when we had to leave, it was the perfect day to be at the beach. But, we will hopefully return next year and stay longer.
Starting a sandcastle and not finishing the sandcastle. The water is much more exciting.
John Derrick thinking that his water wings would help in the ocean.

I have a lot more pictures of our vacation but they are on our new video camera and since it is late and I don't feel like taking the time to figure out how to put them on the camera. So once that gets done, I can post those pictures.

An Indoor Picnic

The kids and I were going to meet a friend at the park today for a picnic except it decided to rain so we had to stay at home. The house was a complete mess anyway so I was glad for an excuse to stay inside and clean up. The kids were a little disappointed that we did not get to have a picnic so I promised them an indoor picnic if they helped me clean up the house. The more they helped clean up, the sooner we could have the picnic. Well, kids are kids and I ended up doing most of the work so our picnic was delayed.

When everything was picked up, I told the kids to pick the spot for our picnic. I told them they could go anywhere in the house except the bathrooms (that would just be a little gross). We eat in the living room quite a bit (I know, bad mama for eating in the living room but you have to have one bad habit) so Faith picked my bed. I told her to get a blanket and cover the bed while I fixed lunch. I packed my new picnic basket that I got from one of my moms from Mother's Day Out. We ate lunch on my bed while looking out the window as the rain came down. That was neat to do. We had the blinds open and it was easy to pretend that we were outside and watching the rain was relaxing. We might have to have an indoor picnic again.