Popcicles for Everyone/dog

This has become a daily summer activity. Everyday after lunch everyone gets Popsicles! Ranger ate his before I could even get the camera! Who can resist a cold Popsicle on a HOT, HOT day?

My Little Mermaid

Morgan has always said that when she grows up she wants to be a mermaid?! The problem, Morgan has never had any desire to put her head under water! Maybe she was just going to be the mermaid that sits on the rocks and looks pretty? That will work!

However, with the progress she has made in the last week of swimming lessons, her Mermaid abilities are increasing! Two weeks ago when she was at "Grammie Camp", she and my mom were at the pool and there was a lady giving swimming lessons to some toddlers. Morgan sat and watched them carefully and I guess figured she could do that, because she walked over to Miss Kay and asked her if she could do it too. Miss Kay had her swimming underwater within minutes! So I figured that we had to jump on this quick if it was going to last. If you don't know Morgan, just because something is good today, doesn't mean it will still be good tomorrow! I had no time to waist! So this week she started 8 days of lessons, 4 this week and 4 next week. She is doing so great! Unfortunately, Morgan likes to swim the breast stroke underwater, but they expect her to swim on top of the water with "ice cream scoops". Her coach, Matt, has spent all week breaking her of her "bad habits"! Oops! He asked why she would swim that way and I told him she learned it from watching her sister! Yes, I through Makinley under the bus! How was I supposed know that swimming underwater was bad! Oh well, I guess Makinley will be taking lessons next!Anyways, despite improper training from her family, Morgan has become quite the swimmer! She even got rings off of the bottom of the 3 foot section of the pool. That was huge to her! So, here are some pictures of my Mermaid in training!:) I'm sure I will have more at the end of next week!

The House Update

When I had my kids, I had to remind the Dr. that though he delivered babies all day everyday, I did not give birth that often. So what was normal and unalarming to him, was not the same for me! The insurance companies need a little training in this philosophy as well. It has been 2 1/2 weeks since the lightening, and other than the repairs that Corey and I have done ourselves, NOTHING has been done! Our reports have been filed with Allstate, but we are still waiting for the confirmation and the money to replace things. It's a good thing that we have a home warranty service, otherwise we should still not have air! It's also a good thing we have a Best Buy card, or we still wouldn't have a washer and dryer! Maybe this isn't a big deal to the people at Allstate, however I tend to disagree. I think it is ridiculous how much we pay for security that we will be "in good hands" when disaster hits, yet we are obviously not a high priority when it does!

Now that I have vented...I will have to say that my new washer and dryer are FABULOUS! They are so high tech and smart! Not to mention they are beautiful! I see them as a small reward for all the grief that we have been through the last few weeks!

Our Night with the Jonas Brothers

Well, Saturday rolled around pretty quickly and we were ready for the big concert. Corey's cousin, Elizabeth and her friend, Ashlee, already had tickets so we invited them to ride in the limo with us. They happily accepted! Our limo arrived at 5:00 to pick all 6 of us up, begin our journey through traffic. Our limo driver was very interesting. First off, instead of stopping to get ice and gas before he picked us up, he stopped on the way there. Then he crawled on top of everyone's feet to put the ice in the drink cooler?!?!?! The drive there and back was equally as interesting. As Morgan put it, "He was a rough driver!". He did more honking and slamming on brakes than I have ever even thought of doing. (We think he must be a taxi driver during the day, to be able to drive the way he does!) Luckily I was facing the rear of the car, so I didn't have to see what he was doing. At one point, Elizabeth's mouth fell open and said, "Did you see how close we just got?" I assured her it was better I not know!

The concert was a completely different situation! Our tickets were on the floor on the 6th row! Sounds great right? But it gets better...the way the rows were arranged, we only had 2 rows in front on us! I have never been that close at any kind of performance! ( Too bad it wasn't George!) I can't say anything negative about the performance that Disney and the Jonas Brothers put on. It was amazing! Jordan Sparks was the opener, along with Honor Society. Then the Jonas brothers hit the stage about 9:00 and played until 11:00! Not too many performers play that long anymore! I really don't know a lot about the Jonas Brothers, except one of them broke Taylor Swift's heart....but they put on an awesome show! The surprise of the night was Miley Cirus! Yes, she was actually there, on stage with Nick singing their new song. Morgan and Makinley were very excited to see her!

I must say that Corey was a great trooper! You cannot even begin to image the decibels of screaming that was constant from 7:00 until 11:00! I have never been anywhere that that many girls screamed that long! Corey took earplugs but didn't even use them. (Granted, Sunday he said his ears were still ringing!) He got major Dad points that night! Not only for going, but also for purchasing 2 Jonas Brothers shirts that totaled $75!!!!

So, with our first concert behind us and labeled a success, we are looking forward to the next one....in September we are going to see Talyor Swift!!!! YAY!

How the Jonas Brothers ruined a good golf game...

I have lots of blogging to catch up on! I know I am behind but my blog account keeps making me reset my password?!?!?! Anyone else having this problem?

Anyway, when I left off we didn't have air and Allstate didn't see that as a problem...well, we finally convinced them otherwise when we put our children's well-being in their hands:) Finally on Tuesday, they agreed to put us up in a hotel. Thanks to a hook up from a great friend, The Gaylord Texan fell within our budget! So Tuesday, we boarded the dogs and moved into the Gaylord for a few days. Not so shabby huh?! Corey went to work on Wednesday while the girls and I enjoyed the pool. When he got to the hotel we loaded up and went to the Big Buck @ Bass Pro for dinner.
Thursday and Friday Corey took off work so we made Thursday into "Vacation". After we checked out of the hotel we ran home to eat some lunch and then headed to Putt-Putt for some HOT family fun. Putt-Putt is always fun for the first ummmm.....one or two holes! Granted it was 2:30 in the afternoon! We had fun despite the heat.

While miniature golfing, we received a phone call from Radio Disney saying that we had won tickets and a limo to the Jonas Brothers Saturday night! We were entered in the contest by a company called Current Safe. They specialize in testing every wire and plug in the house to make sure there is no danger in the walls. After being told by ATT that our phone likes were melted in the wall somewhere, we decided it would be a good idea to have the rest of the wiring checked. So I guess you could say the lightening got us in to the Jonas Brothers?!?!?!!!! However, the rest of the golf game was ruined! Makinley and Morgan couldn't stop talking about the concert long enough to hit the ball! We did make them finish, by golly it was vacation!

Friday was spent with the adjuster and several more contractors. There were some tears shed while the adjuster was here, no they weren't planned, but hopefully they made him take some pity on us! We will see what he can get us...but he is getting us a new roof which is a BLESSING!

For those of you reading in sequence, stay tuned there are more blogs to come!

Bathing beauties! Then "Room Service", a carpet picnic for a snack:)

Daddy and Morgan The Golfing GirlsThe phone call about winning the Jonas Brothers tickets!

Well, it is now Monday...4 days have gone by since we got hit by lightening and there has been no change in our condition. OH WAIT, there has been one change....when the lightening hit, the upstairs air conditioner was out and can't be fixed until the adjuster approves everything. BUT... Saturday night our downstairs air conditioner went out! So here we sit, with NO air and it is 90 something degrees outside. When we talked to Allstate who "has us in their hands" (RIGHT!!!) they say that it is "acceptable to live in an un-air-conditioned house". Easy for them to say, their office is out of Chicago! Maybe no air in the summer in Chicago is acceptable, but anyone who knows Texas, knows this is not acceptable! We have fans blowing, windows open, and we all are sweaty and stinky! The best part is the adjuster won't be here until Friday! So that means we will most likely not have any air until after he shows his charming face! By Friday, I cannot be responsible for the type of welcome he is extended when he shows up at my door! It isn't going to be a happy or pretty one!

The last 24 hours...

At 7:00 last night I was at the church in a VBS meeting when Corey texted me to say we had to leave, "WEATHER!". We wrapped up pretty quick and went downstairs to find black skies and winds that were unreal. I jumped in my car and Corey and Makinley jumped in his. (Morgan is at Grammie's for the week) As we left the rain and winds increased in intensity! As we drove home I began to understand how people end up in water that is too high...they can't see! There was SO much water blowing across the rode and still falling that it was impossible to see more than about 5 feet in front. The windshield wipers could not begin to keep up! At a speed of 15, we eventually made it home. Thanks goodness!
That turned into the beginning of a very long night/day! At about 12:00am Corey was asleep and I was watching TV in bed. I started hearing more rumbles of thunder and saw some lightening. I decided to go get Makinley and bring her to our room, which I often do in thunderstorms. I just don't like them being upstairs with lightening....and for good reason! Once i got back to our room I told Corey it was raining again and I was going to get my laptop to see how bad the storms were. As I got half way across the bedroom, it happened! The room lit up and there was a loud high-pitched noise, which then led to squeals, screams, and sirens. The house alarm went off, there was a high-pitched squeal, there were humming sounds, and Makinley screamed like I have never heard her scream! We had been hit with lightening! The house began to smell like smoke, so Corey put me, Makinley and the 2 dogs in the car and told me to call 911. Makinley cried the whole time we were in the car. She was upset that Corey was still in the house, which I can't blame her for being upset about that, but what do ya do? The firemen came and checked out everything. All was okay except that we needed to have an electrician out. Once the fire crews left we began making a list of things that were toast! Surround sound, washing machine, possibly the dryer, 4 TV's, 4 DVD players, the garage door opener, and the upstairs air conditioner, just to name a few. We ended up back in bed at 3:00 and then storm number 3 moved through! All of a sudden I heard water:/ So Corey and I got up again to see what the problem was. There was a puddle of water on the kitchen floor that had come through an ac vent. By 3:45, Corey's employees stared calling about the power being out at the shop. So needless to say we got about 3 hours of sleep until storm 4 moved in at 8:00. Luckily we had no tragedies during that storm!
Today the electrician came, we have calls in to 3 roofers, the ATT uverse guy just left(even though most of the TV's don't work), the phones will be fixed on Sat., and the insurance adjuster will be here in 3-5 days!
But wait, the saga continues! While cooking dinner Ranger was barking uncontrollably and Corey walked in the dining room to see some teenage boys outside throwing things at each other. Whatever they threw, hit our dining room window and busted it! It is still in tact, but it has a nice large web on it. So he ran in the yard and caught one boy who was willing to throw the others under the bus! Corey called the police out for a second time today, and got their mother down here to pay for the window.
We are so glad that our house is okay and more importantly, we are okay! This could have been so much worse! I am SO glad that I got Makinley downstairs before all of this happened! I am also glad that Morgan was not here!
Tonight we are praying for peaceful skies, an uneventful evening, and for a compassionate insurance adjuster!

More Molly:)

Molly

Well, we have a new addition to the Eddlemon household....Molly! I have been trying to convince Corey for a month or so that I wanted another dog once summer got here. Well, I wouldn't say that I convinced him, I think his comment was, "I think you are crazy and you are fully responsible for all of this"! But today he did agree to take us to the SPCA and look for a puppy:)

We were really looking for a lab or something close. The girls were set on finding the perfect dog and naming him Buster???? After church, we drove all the way to McKinney to the SPCA to see a Golden Retriever puppy, but turns out the puppy that we saw online is now a full grown, very active dog. PASS!

Then we went to the Dallas SPCA. This place is near and dear to our hearts because it is where we adopted Bernie, our St. Bernard that passed away last summer. Right when we walked in my heart melted! I saw this little white/tan puppy that looked to be a lab! It was so precious! I soon realized that it was a girl. I was discouraged since Ranger is a boy, it just didn't seem like a good fit. However I couldn't help but love her! We talked to the experts there and they said that male and female dogs get along better sometimes, rather than 2 males. Since both dogs are fixed we shouldn't have any problems.

We took the puppy into the play room and spent a few minutes playing with her. We were pretty sure that she was a lab...how perfect! I went and got her paperwork and soon realized that she was part Great Pyrenees and part Australian Shepard. In case you are unfamiliar with these dogs, they fall in the "giant" category:) Not a problem for us, we like big dogs! The girls fell in love with her and named her Molly before we could get out of the play room!

So goes the story of Molly:) She is absolutely beautiful, and I can't help but think she could be part lab instead of Australian Shepard, she has webbed feet! Whatever she is we love her, and as for Ranger, he is learning to love her!