Another year down.....

I haven't posted in a while - too much going on. We still have the house up for sale and are moving in the next two months. The kids are growing and the house is still a zoo, but a fun one. We have had a great Christmas at home and in Birmingham, visiting family and friends. Here are a few pics from the last couple months and a video of Kole playing the wii at Gran's. I hope everyone had an awesome holiday. Please remember us in your prayers as we make the transition to T-town and especially for the sale of our home. Thanks!!!

Stay Classy San Diego

Troy and I have been in San Diego for a few days and we are now back home. Troy spoke at a youth event for our friends' church there and so we made it a vacation as well. San Diego is one of the most beautiful cities I've been to - the weather is always sunny, slightly breezy and around 75 degrees. There is a lot to do there. We went to a historic lighthouse, the San Diego Zoo, the beach, and some good restaurants. BUT, the most fun thing we did will be posted in some videos below - laughter yoga. We were driving through a park and we saw this group of people laughing and doing strange things and the sign said "Free laughter yoga class." So, we turned the car around and Troy, Dave and I joined the class. It was hilarious. The teacher would have us pretend to be animals, talk jibberish to each other, etc. and then laugh. He made us pretend to talk on cell phones and laugh at what the people on the other line were saying. I have to say, we couldn't stop laughing and it felt pretty good. At the end, we had to lie down with our heads in a circle and just laugh without stopping (see pic in slideshow). Anyways, if you ever get the chance you should try it. We stayed with our friends whose house overlooks the harbor AND the next street over from theirs is the street Tom Cruise rode his motorcyle on in Top Gun. So that was neat to see. We had a great time, but were also looking forward to hearing southern accents again and eating country vegetables - so tonight we had hamburger steak, mashed potatoes, green beans and biscuits. Oh, and one more thing - if you ever get the chance to eat at In and Out Burger - it is worth it - they have fresh cut fries that are great.

Pumkin Patch

I went with Kole and Maci's class to the pumpkin patch and we had a really good time. Also, Maci started gymnastics this week - see pic and video below.

And now for the comical story of the week. Sunday night, we went to visit a friend's church in Mississippi. He just went on staff there and they were having an ice cream social to honor he and his wife after church. So they had all these chairs around the walls and kids were running around everywhere, so very informal. Troy was sitting to the left of me having a very serious conversation with the pastor of the church. Koby and Maci were to the right of me goofing off. The pastor's father, who was the guest preacher at the church that night and also a pastor himself in Tennessee, sits down beside Koby. Keep in mind he is an older gentlemen. Right as he sits down, I look over and Maci has turned her booty towards Koby, poked it out and pulled down her pants and panties mooning him. And of course the pastor is looking right at her. I fussed at her and it was really awkward - he didn't know what to say, neither did I. So he got up and went to throw his trash away. He came back and smiled and said "I have four two-year old grandchildren." Anyway, to sum it all up, my daughter mooned the guest preacher at the church we were visiting. To make matters worse, we ended up going out to eat with their whole family afterwards.

Random pics

Another party, a couple of minor mishaps, and a new obsession

Well, let's see.......we went to Bham for Kole's "baseball" birthday party and to catch an Alabama game. Of course DeeDee made the cute cake and Gran hosted the party. I also need to add into this that for the third time, DeeDee and Gran got the same presents for one of my kids. They have done this with all three now. I think it's so funny that out of all the millions of stuff for kids, they seem to pick out the same thing. I guess they just have great taste!

Moving right along, last week, Thing 2 (Kole) cut a snippet out of his finger with the scissors that Thing 1 (Maci) left out. Since I was cooking supper I had no idea what was going on (even though Kole was sitting at the bar right in front of me) and the thing bled for, no exaggeration, 45 minutes. Troy called a doc from the church to see what to do, but we finally got it to stop.

Two days later, while I took a five minute shower, (when I decided to do this, Kole was watching Barney and Maci was playing baby dolls), Maci evidently found an orange sharpee (from where I don't know because if you'll remember the sharpee incident from a few months ago, I put all sharpees out of reach), and started at one arm of the couch and continued writing on every cushion, finishing with the other arm of the couch. And yes, I lost my temper and went crazy. I did manage to get most of it out, but still have to work on some spots.

Finally, Kole still likes shoes, but his obsession has changed. He now likes to wear Koby's baseball helmet everywhere. He found it in the car and one day I looked back and he was sitting in his carseat wearing it on the way to school. He walks around the house in it, and this morning, I walked to the back of the house and when I got back in the kitchen, he was eating his cereal wearing his helmet. So above are the pics from all of this update.

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall............

Well, Koby had to be Humpty Dumpty for a nursery rhyme parade at school. We asked him why he couldn't have picked something like Jack and Jill or Jack be nimble. Anyway, we figured it out at 9:00 the night before of course. Troy used an exercise ball stuffed with pillows for the fluffiness. He ended up looking like the kid from Willy Wonka, but he was the best dressed Humpty Dumpty in the class.

Happy 3rd Birthday Maci and Roll Tide!!!

Maci turned three and Gran and Papa and DeeDee and Captain came to help us celebrate. DeeDee made Maci a Hello Kitty birthday cake which was awesome. Most of the above pics are of the party - Maci got everything imaginable that was Hello Kitty. There are a couple pics of Maci's new temporary "big girl" bed. Since then, we have actually gotten her a bed, but no bedding yet - still working on that one. I figured it was time to finally take her out of the crib even though she still was fine in it. Plus, baby Reagan (Sherri's bambino to be), is going to use the crib.

There is one pic of Gran looking at a book with Koby - there is a funny story behind that. Koby came home from school one day all excited saying, "Daddy,Daddy, they took us all into the room where we usually eat and told us about this big Mega Party and all the games we could play and how much fun it will be." Troy is trying to figure out what he's talking about. Then Koby says, "If we get a certain level then Mega Man comes to the Mega Party." Then the light bulb came on and Troy said, "Koby, do you have to sell anything?" He said, "I don't know Dad, but the Mega Party is REAL!!!" Troy said his eyes were huge. So anyway, with all that said, we've been introduced to our first fundraiser. He has to sell 10 items to make it to the MEGA PARTY, so Gran and DeeDee gave him a good start.

Down below, Roll Tide!!!

School Days

Kole and Maci's first day of mother's day out

Koby's first day of "big school". They have to wear uniforms which isn't actually that bad, especially for me getting him ready.

I haven't blogged in a while but we have been very busy. The kids are all doing good at school - Koby has gotten a 5 in conduct every day so far - which is the best that you can get. He is also doing calculus and writing research papers but I don't want to brag too much - DeeDee has always said he was a genius. Anyway, here are a few more pics of the kids around the house. The fam is coming up this weekend to celebrate Maci's 3rd birthday - she is excited. The other big news around here is that the "passy fairy" came to visit Maci on her birthday and took her passy away but left some hello kitty trinkets in return. That's it for now!

A little R & R for the Nicholson Zoo

We decided to go camping for our vacation this year. We had a blast and the kids loved it - Koby didn't want to leave. He rode the tube for the first time, and of course Kole - our little daredevil rode it with Troy as well. I kneeboarded for the first time in about five years and realized that I am a lot more out of shape than I ever imagined. Of course, it was very hot considering it IS July and everything. We had the campsite reserved until Thursday, but decided Tuesday night that we probably should go home to the air conditioner considering we had downed 60 (no exaggeration) 20 oz bottles of water and didn't have enough food left. So maybe next time we will go in May or September, but we really did enjoy ourselves and just time to get away from it all.

Whew!!!!!!!!

Well, after two and a half weeks of being out of town, we are FINALLY home. We had a great time and here are lots of pictures to show what we did. We went to the Parker's house on the lake, celebrated fourth of July at Papa and Gran's with the other Nicholson Zoo, Koby took his first airplane ride to NC with Troy and I where we got to see friends we haven't seen in five years since we left and now we are home.

Our Journey Since April of 2007

After 8 hours of filming, and 50 attempts, we finally managed to condense the last 14 months into a 10 minute video. Thanks for all the encouraging emails and phone calls about our "transition". Below you will find the very abbreviated story of what God has placed on our hearts. We love you!!! Thanks for your prayers!!!

Lots of pictures from the last two months

We took the kids on their first putt-putt trip which went rather well - Koby even got a hole in one! The church had a picnic at a park with a man-made beach. The pic of Koby and the little girl at the table is at her birthday party. Her name is Reece-Mallory and we always joke with him about her being his girlfriend. Then the last few are of DeeDee and Captain coming up on Memorial Day weekend.
These are of our trip home in April, random pics of the kids I took with my phone and if you'll notice the pic on the third row of the scribbles, that was when Maci got hold of a big sharpie while Troy and I were napping and wrote on our bedroom carpet. Yeah, that still hasn't come off yet.
This was Koby's baseball game/taking mom and dad to the Big Bridge. Okay, you are officially updated.

Rumor Has It..........................

Well, I've been waiting a LONG time to write this post, and the time has finally arrived. Many of you have heard the rumor, so I will confirm it: and NO I'm not pregnant, sorry. Our family will be moving sometime in early 2009 to somewhere (not sure yet) in Tuscaloosa County, ALABAMA. Sweet Home Alabama!!! We are going to start a church there from scratch. There are so many more details than I have time to write here, but Troy and I will be glad to share with anyone who wants to hear the story. At the risk of all of you thinking we are CRAZY and belong to one of those cults where they cover themselves with purple triangles and drink special "Kool-Aid" and wait for Jesus to come in a UFO and take them "HOME", I will tell you the basics. In April of 2007, God basically woke Troy up in the middle of the night and took him to Acts 27 (the shipwreck passage), and told him that He wanted him to start a church in Tuscaloosa county called Safehaven Church. (and yes it was that detailed - Troy said he has never experienced anything like this and actually thought he might be crazy). God basically used that passage to show him that just like Paul and the crew of the ship should have stayed in the place called Fairhavens instead of continuing on against what Paul advised (and eventually ended up shipwrecked), He has places of safety in "the local church" but people choose not to use them and their lives end up shipwrecked as well. God told Troy he wanted him to start one of these "places of safety." There are many more details about that night, but to make a long story short, he didn't tell me because he asked God that if this was real to reveal this to me. So about two weeks later we were in the kitchen and I told him that I felt like we were going to start a church because God had been showing me that over the last two weeks. So that is where it all began. Troy has pages and pages of "God"/ supernatural things that have happened to us to confirm this and like I said before, we would be glad to share it with you anytime. The reason we are telling it now is because the youth group and church officially all know now. The church is going to support us and help us transition during this process. So we have a few more months here, but we do ask that you pray for us because we know that we can only do this with God's help-after all, the whole thing is His idea anyway. We are moving our family and have no idea where we are going to live or how we will afford to live, but the funny thing is, we have no fear of that - God has just given us a total peace about it and we know that He is going to take care of us. Our most immediate need will be for our house to sell in the horrible housing market right now, so pray especially for that. We will certainly keep you updated during the process.

Just a Few Updates

Koby got his diploma from preschool Thursday, which means he will officially be entering the public school system in August, which is also officially making me sad. I'm starting to second-guess the whole process. When I was five, I only went to Kindergarten half a day, why does he have to go a whole day? We'll see what happens - homeschooling is not an option because we would KILL each other or at least try.
Kole has always loved shoes, but his love for shoes has grown even more. In any given hour, he may walk in and show me five different pairs of shoes, usually Maci's, which is why I took a picture of him in Koby's cleats, so that everyone would see that he does wear boy shoes too.
Last but certainly not least is the salt story. I came in the kitchen to discover the above. This may not look like that bad of a spill, but the worse part is what you can't see. She dumped salt out all over the kitchen floor and all over the bar, barstools, bags and backpacks. I thought that it wouldn't be that hard to clean up, but it was awful. I swept, vacuumed, mopped, and then had to get qtips and clean the grooves of the picnic table. Salt was stuck to my feet and everything else. What I can't figure out is how that much salt came out of that little salt shaker.

Busy as a Bee

Hey fellow bloggers,
Sorry I haven't updated in almost a month - I think this has been the busiest month for us since we've been married. I have lots of updates and pics coming soon. DeeDee and Captain are coming for a visit this weekend, which means I will probably get a minute to blog. I have been reading all of your blogs even though I haven't updated my own. Talk to ya soon!

Well, we have been in Bham for the last ten days. We had a good visit with family and friends. Mammaw has been in and out of the hospital with one thing after another going wrong, but hopefully, after today they will have her on the road to recovery. The trip home today was pretty interesting. We got up at 4:00 a.m. to leave today, car completely full (could barely shut the trunk), kids asleep. So all is well.....until about 10 miles on the other side of Jasper the left rear tire blows out. So we pull off the road and open the trunk, and unload all the luggage to get to the tire and jack. Troy smashes his thumb with the jack and keeps mumbling something about how we're going to buy a hydraulic jack no matter how much it costs. On top of all that it is dark and freezing and Troy has no hat for his bald head, no jacket, shortsleeves and flip-flops. He gets the tire changed miraculously with the kids never waking up. So we backtrack to Jasper to get a biscuit from Hardees and head to Wal-Mart for a tire. It is 6:30 at this point and we are first in line for when they open at 7:00. We are sitting there eating and Maci needs to poop, which would be fine except for her portable potty is in the back of the trunk which would have to be unloaded again to get to. So I ask Troy to drive me around to the front of the store to take her to potty and Troy just looks at me and says,"I'm not losing my place in line, I was here first." I just laughed and got the potty out of the trunk and sat Maci on it in the front seat. Then I got in the back and sat in her carseat because it was so cold outside. Maci hadn't pooped yet and the workers were coming towards the car to help us and Koby reminds us that he doesn't have any pants on. So I pull Maci off the potty and get Koby's pants and we pull the car up. Then we had to unload the car again and leave our luggage on this picnic table outside the store while they fixed it. They did it pretty quick and we were finally on the road again. After that we stopped for gas and I got Troy a grapico which spewed all over him when he opened it when we were on down the road a little. So the next thing I know Troy has pulled down his pants to his ankles while he is driving and puts a baby blanket over his lap. This was funny because, as it goes on family trips, you have to fuss at the kids a lot and so everytime he would fuss at them, I would laugh because I couldn't take him serious with his pants down. We finally made it to Arkansas safe and sound and now the fun of unpacking begins. Flat tires are never fun, but we feel like everything happens for a reason and who knows, God could have been protecting us from something much worse had we not have been stopped at that specific moment. Have a good day and hopefully I will have some new pics up soon!

Swing Batter Batter Swing

Kole has been watching Koby play the Wii for weeks, but has never gotten a chance to try it himself. This is him trying to play baseball and I thought it was cute.

St. Patrick's Day?

I only wish I was making this stuff up, then you wouldn't think I was crazy. But, I figure maybe by showing how brainless I am will make someone feel better. So, last night I get an email from Koby's teacher reminding all the parents that picture day is today and for the kids to wear jeans and a white shirt. Let me emphasize that this was a REMINDER email as if we should already know. I had no clue. However, I will not take blame for this one as Koby has missed lots of school in the last few weeks and evidently has not gotten all the handouts which probably included the one about picture day. I am just thankful that the email was sent or once again, Koby would have been the only one different from everyone else. That's not so bad; but this is: I am getting him dressed in his white shirt and jeans and he tells me he doesn't want to wear the shirt. So I explain to him that his teacher wants him to wear it because that's how everyone is dressing today for pictures. So he replies: "Well, on St. Patrick's Day, everyone at school had on green - even the babies in the nursery - and you didn't let me wear anything green." After feeling horrible once again, I said, "Honey, I didn't even know St. Patrick's day had come and gone." Poor, poor, poor Koby.

Thanks for the dress Aunt Jill!

We took Koby to opening night of the Traveler's game (our Minor league team here) Thursday night. He tired out after we sang during 7th inning stretch so we left. Little did we know we were driving home as a tornado was hitting Little Rock. Thankfully, it missed our town by about five miles, but there was a lot of damage in the neighborhood we moved from about a year ago.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

All done!

I just have to brag on Troy for a minute. He worked his tail off for 8 days laying tile in our kitchen/laundry room. I thought I would go crazy with the appliances all over the house and the constant mess, but it was worth it. He did a great job and the tile looks awesome.

JUST SO YOU KNOW

I just wanted to let everyone know that I took Koby back to school today, it was actually open this time and I buckled all the kids in and shut the car doors before I left. All I have to do is make it two more months at this school and then he will go to kindergarten at a new school where nobody knows me yet. A new school year, a new beginning.......................

I'm that mom that my kids' teachers talk about!

Let me give you a little background here. Last year the mother's day out program that Koby attends had a mother's day luncheon. So I get my neighbor to keep the babies so I could go. Well, I get there and I had missed it by an hour even though I had written it on my calender, I guess I wrote it down wrong. So, while all the other kids were eating with their moms, singing for their moms and then giving their moms the gifts they made them, Koby's mom was not there. Besides that, all year I had forgotten to send things on time that the teacher had asked for. But at least last year I had an excuse because I had my second baby in a year's time and we moved all in the same month. My brain was not all there. But as this school year was beginning, I realized that I couldn't use that excuse anymore and that I would have to get it together, step it up a notch, etc. I've tried to get my money in on time, write correct times and dates on the calender, go to the parties, all that jazz. So, about six weeks ago, I got a note in Koby's backpack telling us to send 12 candy filled eggs for the Easter egg hunt they would have in April and to have them in in two weeks. So I thought, I will go ahead and send them early, be responsible. I did just that and I wrote it on my calender. So the day for the Easter egg hunt came and on the way to school I got Koby all excited about it and dropped him off. Then at 2:00 I went to pick him up and to my horror I saw all the other kids coming out with EASTER BASKETS full of eggs and even worse, my child was walking out with a WAL-MART sack filled with his eggs. I forgot to send his EASTER BASKET to hunt the eggs with! Idiot!!!! He said, "Mom you forgot my easter basket!" I felt horrible.
Okay, so fast-forward five days later, time to take Koby to school again. I get up early, get a shower rush all the kids around trying to get him ready, get his lunch packed. Right before we left, Maci dumped a box of frosted flakes all over my carpet. I was mad and spanked her and was just all frustrated ya know. So I put Maci and Kole on my hip and take them to the car, get them all in. I put the car in drive and Maci screams out "Shut my door!" I look back and she is not buckled in her car seat and the car door is wide open! So I go buckle her thinking to myself "I am losing my mind, literally", shut the door and drive Koby to school. As I'm driving I'm talking to Jill on the phone laughing about what just happened. I pull into the school parking lot and I see no cars and so I confirm with Jill that it is actually Tuesday, and ask her "Why is there nobody here?", as if she would know three states away, and then it dawns on me, IT IS SPRING BREAK!!!! The sad thing about it is that we are tiling our kitchen floor and the whole reason Troy took off work to do that is because it is, YOU GUESSED IT SPRING BREAK!!!! Idiot!!!
I used to never forget anything and be organized and have it all together. Those days are long gone!

Easter Pics

Since Troy has to be at church early on Easter and the kids are ready for naps and grumpy when we get home from church, we decided to take our Easter picture on Easter Eve. So we got dressed, took some pics, changed clothes and went to eat supper. There are some pics from Easter morning (whatever I could snap while trying to get us all in the car). I also included the pic of Kole wearing Maci's dress shoes around the house (he wouldn't take them off for about two hours). Hope this doesn't predict a cross-dresser in our future. The only other news is that I started a new job today. I am going to do 12-15 hours/week physical therapy at a nursing home nearby for some extra money. Someone is going to keep them in our house while I work. Oh, and Troy is putting tile down in our kitchen so my refrigerator is plugged in at my front door, my washer and dryer are on the back deck, and my stove is in my den. But it will all be worth it. Bye Bye now.

Spring is Here!!!!

These are pics from our spring carnival at church last weekend and playing outside with our neighbor Faye's grandson. Maci loves our neighbor's dogs Jonah and Zeus. She definitely takes after her Aunt Jill in that regard. If Maci and I had it our way, we would have a big dog like Jonah in our house. Troy promises me I can have a dog again when Kole graduates from high school. I had to take a picture of Maci walking and holding Wally's hand because if you know Maci, she hides and covers her face with her bunny if anyone walks in the room except our family. She loved Wally and let him play toys with her when he came for a visit last week. Of course, who doesn't love Wally?

We're back from Colorado!

We had a great time in Colorado and got much needed rest. We stayed in Littleton outside of Denver, which by the way, is where Columbine High School is. We drove by and saw it and it was so weird - it didn't look much bigger than Minor. Seeing it in person after being in that community(which is just like communities we live in ) for a few days made me realize how something like that could happen anywhere. We went skiing for a day, which was awesome, but made us realize how out of shape we are. That was the first time I had been in three years - last time I went I was pregnant with Maci and didn't know it. Then Troy had to check out a bunch of sites to take the youth to when they go to Colorado Springs in June, so we spent the day there riding around and seeing everything. It's good to be home - I missed the kids. DeeDee and Captain came to stay with them while we were gone and so I'm sure they got to do lots of things we would never let them get away with! Well, that's all I got - back to life as I know it tomorrow!

Fun in the Snow!

Here are some pics of the kids playing in the snow last week. We couldn't believe it, but schools stayed open! That was unusual for Arkansas - they are like Alabama in that when snow comes usually everything shuts down.

First haircut

Troy gave Kole his first haircut Saturday. You have probably seen from the pics that he was growing a pretty serious curly mullet. Troy said it had to go. I was very sad because I think it took away his baby look.


Koby dressed Kole up in this cape and sunglasses and made him walk in the den. I thought it was funny.

Prayer Please!

I just wanted to take some time to ask that you pray for my grandmother as she found out she has a cancerous mass on her kidney. They will remove it and have said that it hasn't spread anywhere else. The kicker is that her other kidney isn't functioning well, so she may have to be put on dialysis after surgery. Just pray that her other kidney will start functioning well enough to prevent this. Although this was news we never wanted to get, we are confident that God is in control and whatever he does is right. Thanks for the prayers!
Julie :)

Happy Birthday Troy!!!

Troy turned the big 32 Saturday. He wanted a chocolate bundt cake with white icing, so here he is reluctantly posing for a pic. We went out with some friends and had cake at home, nothing exciting.

This is typical Kole right here. You hardly ever see him walking around the house without some food (usually too much) stuffed in his mouth. He goes around and gets stuff under the table that was dropped. It's like having a dog - cuts down on the sweeping. Anyways, the only other Kole story I have is that I found him the other morning dipping water out of the toilet with a cup and pouring it on the bathroom floor (many cupfulls of water), so that was fun to clean up. Nothing new with Maci. Last night, Koby told Troy that he was the best daddy that God ever made. We thought that was cute. Of course this came after we had to have a talk with him about private parts because on his etch-a-sketch he drew a naked guy peeing. Kids!
Have a happy day!

Let the Lysoling Begin!

Yes, that's right, Maci woke up this morning with a high temp and the chills. Here we go again. Troy and I are going on a much needed trip to Colorado in two weeks. Therefore, I am banning the kids from any form of childcare for two weeks, hoping to keep the sickness away from the adults. Very selfish, I know. I may not even take them to the grocery store. I've turned into a maniac. I reluctantly agreed to take them to Chuck E. Cheese Friday, the mothership of all germs. I suspect that could be the culprit. Until we're well.............

Summit Student Ministry (Joe Bill Joe Jim #4)

It's been a while but Joe Bill and Joe Jim are back!

Everybody Dance Now.....

I'm not sure if this is dancing or not, but it rained all day and we were getting bored, plus I wanted to figure out posting a video on here. So anyways, here is the zoo running around in their underwear.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it is safe to say we are over the crud. Wow, what a long week! I hope everyone is having a happy valentine's day. Troy and the kids surprised me with a necklace with four charms (kids names and then my favorite bible verse Prov. 3:5-6). I love it! We are going to just hang out here and probably let the kids have too much candy. Have a good one!

Puke, Puke & More Puke...............

I know - it sounds gross - but it's the reality of what's been going on in our house for a week now. Monday night, Maci wakes up puking, so I get up, get all the stuff out of her crib and wash it, change her clothes and get her back to bed. Next day, she feels better, Kole pukes all over the floor. It doesn't seem to phase him, because about ten minutes after he pukes he is running around playing and screaming "Eat, Eat." All this time I, who am not normally worried about germs, am lysoling everything I see, washing my hands every time I touch Kole or Maci, washing sheets and pillowcases everytime someone lays on them for more than an hour, just praying I won't get sick. I kept Koby out of school Tuesday, just in case he was contagious and then waited to see who was next. Wednesday, Kole had the runs all day, but there was no puke. So Thursday, since Koby hasn't caught it yet, I assume he's not going to and send him to school. Thursday afternoon, I pick him up from school, he comes in and takes a nap and you've probably guessed it by now, he wakes up PUKING! In case you didn't know, a five-year-old's puke is much worse than a 1 or 2 year old's puke. It was disgusting. I saw chunks of stuff and asked him what he ate for snack time at school - batman gummies. Yeh, they came back up. Okay, so I mopped the floor, washed the sheets, changed his clothes and an hour later, he pukes again. So I go through the same routine again and an hour later, here it comes again. Same routine, mop, wash, change clothes. Oh, and don't forget lysol, except by now I am out because I have used a whole can in two days. I pile all the kids in the car and go to the dollar store because I've got to get sprite, saltines and a jumbo can of lysol. Sidenote - Troy has had an extremely busy work week so I've mostly been on my own, so yes, I had to take the sick kids to the store with me. Besides, it's hard to get anyone to come babysit puking kids - they don't want to get sick either. Okay, so Friday, there is no puke, just the runs with Kole. Saturday at 6 am, Kole is crying. I'm thinking, "he can just cry because I am not getting out of bed this early, I am exhausted." Well, he doesn't stop after 30 minutes, which is unusual, so I go check on him. I open the door, and the overwhelming smell of puke comes over me. He has thrown up all in his crib. So I go through the routine again, he acts like he's okay all day and then Sunday morning, I wake up to him crying at 6 am again and that's right, he's puked everywhere again. Go through the routine, he seems to be fine yet again. Troy wakes up with the runs and chills and so I put him on the couch with soup, saltines, advil, and berry blue kool-aid. In the midst of all this, Saturday, my dryer breaks, so at this point, I'm tossing the puky sheets on my back deck so I don't have to smell them. Sunday, I borrowed my neighbor's dryer until Troy feels well enough to fix ours. As a final note, one night I was feeling sorry for myself and I thought to myself, "a caramel sunday from McDonalds would just make everything better and let's face it, I deserve it after this horrible week." So I head to McDonalds, wait in line for the drive-thru and when I finally get up there, there's a sign on the speaker that says the ice cream machine is broken! I decided at that point to just accept the fact that sometimes nothing goes right and I should just be thankful we're all alive. Well, that's what's going on in Arkansas - sorry for the gross blog - if you've made it to the end of this, you must be bored. I just thank the Lord I haven't gotten it................................yet.

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We couldn't resist the opportunity to play out in the warm weather today - there was no sun, but at least we could be out in short sleeves! Yea!

Back to Birmingham.......

We had a fun week in Birmingham. DeeDee took us to the circus and the Parker/Fuqua/White crew joined us. Then on Saturday Gran threw Koby a second 5th birthday party and we had a blast. Tanya and Anna Kate Hindman came to celebrate with us. This time the theme was Mario Brothers. Gran gave Koby a nintendo gameboy which he was very excited about and DeeDee gave him a candy machine with the claw like you play in Wal-Mart. So now they think they can eat candy all the time when they win it. We visited with Grandmother Nicholson and Grandmother and Grandaddy Russell while we were in town. I also ran into Susan (Steph Swindle's mom) and Mr. Timmons in the same restaurant one night, so it was good to see everyone and catch up. Now I've got to unpack and get our lives back in order again. So I may not be blogging for a few days. Have a happy week!

Happy 5th Birthday Koby!!!!!

I can't believe Koby is already five - time flies! Koby wanted me to make him a ninja turtle cake for his birthday and so I gave it my best shot. I decided to make it out of cupcakes, not taking into consideration that the edges would be lumpy instead of a smooth circle. SO...it ended up looking like a ninja frog instead. But he still loved it and it tasted good so that's all that matters. The picture of Maci and Kole was taken while everyone else was focused on Koby opening his presents - I looked over and they had gotten hold of a plate of cake and ice cream that someone had left sitting in their reach. They hit the jackpot! We were also supposed to take Koby bowling for his birthday, but when we got there, the power was out and not expected to come back on for a while. Bummer!

Other than Koby's party, nothing much else is going on. Troy got in around 11:00 last night after being in Dallas for a week. We were glad to have him home. This was the first time I had all three kids for a week by myself - they should have put us on TV and called it "Survivor". hehe They were actually pretty good - Troy prayed before he left that they would be - he was probably afraid I might do something bad - but anyway, it was definitely a prayer answered.

The jeep is up and running and hopefully the Suburban will be soon. The kids and I will be heading to Bham in a couple of weeks. DeeDee is taking Koby and Maci to the circus. So until next time.....................