Deals Deals Deals

Today a group of girls and I went out to the Kids Nearly New Sale at the Howard County Fair Grounds! It was such a blast!!! I got up at 7, and went to Krispy Kream for some HOT FRESH to start our morning out right. Then we rode together over to the fair grounds. It was such a blast! I went seeking some little tykes yard stuff, and found a fabulous slide for $35 and a cozy coop car for $10! I found TONS of books and got some rocking deals on some cute clothes! It started at 8 and went till noon. I think the funnest time is from 8-9 and then from 11-12. At first it is a mad dash for all the big stuff that everyone wants. Then it is normal garage saleing until about 11 when people start triing to get rid of their stuff. Saying that their whole booth is 1/2 off, or they sometimes had you a bad and tell you to stuff it for $1! It is so fun. I was happy to come home with those items and only encountered a problem when I tryed to get the slide in the van. Yeah, it wouldn't fit! Not only that but I had the little car, and 3 friends to drive home! UH oh! Then I meet up with the gals and Christina has a big entertainment thingy for her baby and a train table and a stroller and a car seat. (just to mention the big stuff.) How are we going to get this all home!?!?! So we try to contact a friend with a pick up truck, she isn't home. Then we try to finagle, and eventually end up calling Jennis husband to come and bail us out. We took the middle seat out of my van, and stuck it up on the back seat, then we piled stuff in till stuff would fit no more!!! It was the funniest sight to see. I took a pic with my camera on my phone, but I haven't figured out how to get it off the phone yet. I'll post it when I do though.
After all the fun, I came home and helped Brent clean up the yard all afternoon. (it looks great by the way) and I cleaned out my Van since the seats were out. Then we went to Costco at about 6:20, only to find out that it closes at 6 on sat!! GRRRR. So we stoped at Wendys, which is Toris new favorite place because she thinks that it has something to do with the Wendy from Peter Pan. :-)
We came home and put the kids to "bed" and then our neighbors came over to play games till after 11pm. I say "bed" because Liza got up after 10 pm and told us that she had managed to pull out her somewhat loose tooth, blood everywhere.... I went upstairs and Tori was also still awake. Then I had to put Katie down to cry next to the only person in the house who went to sleep. (DUHH and GRRR to having 2 bedrooms and 4 kids) Anywho, after our guest left I wrote a talk for tomorrow in Relief Society and then wrote a talk for Alex to give in primary. (Lucky for us, Church starts at 1pm) Then since I was on a roll, I wrote my mom "THE LETTER" that I have been wanting to write her in which I voice my opinion of this mess. And now it is 3 am and I see fit that I blog before going to bed! WHAT A NUT!!! OH yeah, and Brent has to work tomorrow so I, in my sleepy stooper will get my 4 kids ready and take them to church. HA! Not so smart. Oh well, its in my genetic make up. (the night owl, not the stupidity.:-) Good night.

Lately....

I have to give and update on the twins. They have been eaten by (I believe) the grackles in my yard. :-( I was so sad, I wanted to see those little guys hatch and learn to fly. I researched Robins and found out that they don't incubate their eggs until there are 3 or 4 in a nest, and they also will only lay one egg a day. Therefor they first and second and sometimes 3rd egg just sit in the nest vulnerable for a few days. Isn't that interesting..... it is a wonder that any robin eggs service that. Their eggs are such a beautiful bright color, how do they not get seen by other birds, and squirrels? Anyway, so their predators are Crows, black birds, grackles, and squirrels. All of which I have seen in my back yard, but the Grackles had the guiltiest look on their smug little iridescent faces. :-) So the story ends. :-(
Yesterday I hosted Giant Journals Group at my house and my dear friend Jeri took my kids so that I could frantically clean up my house so that the ladies who come to journaling didn't have to wash their feet after leaving my house. I am so grateful for good friends. The people that I know here in Maryland are great, I feel so loved and excepted by all of them. It will sure be hard to leave in a few years, and go to some podunk army base somewhere in the middle of no where. :-( Journaling was great, it sure was nice to get it out again and spend some time with my self. I find that my quiet moments lately have been occupied by thoughts of my family and the troubles there. I have generally avoided being alone for that reason, but I permitted myself a few moments last night. I am starting to come around and I am trying to learn how do deal with this in the most Christ like manner that I can. I sure miss my Mother in Law. I wish that she were here to council me through this, she was such a wonderful example in my life of Christ like behavior. I won't go off on that too much as I am suppose to touch on that subject on Sunday in Relief Society. Speaking of my mother in law, I called the new wife last night for her Birthday....(big sigh) I need to learn how to hug that porcupine!!!!! Ohh, she rubs me the wrong way. I am sure that a lot of it is me, I need to grow up a bit. Any who, kids are coming home. I am trying to compile a 100 things I am thankful for list. :-) Wait for it. :-)

My Girls

Another lesson today,

I got to have another lesson with Jeri today. Boy am I glad that she has a dog that I can babysit in exchange for her expertise

TWINS!!!!!!!!!!!

We're having twins!!!!

Twin robins that is..... Last night as I went to take the recycling out to the curb I frightened mommy bird who was snuggled down in her nest in the planter that is hanging off my porch light. I am so excited to watch these little eggs hatch, and then watch the little guys learn to fly. What fun for the kids too!!! Yeah for Spring!!!

More Cool Disney Pictures

The first picture is Alex at the Princess lunch. He was done being the only little boy in the room. Poor kid, all those princesses kept talking to him. :-) It was so funny!

Pics with Charater

Alex absolutly loved that Chicken Little switched his hat. They really liked the Characters.

I think Peter Pan was my favorite! He was SO in Charater that I almost believed he was real. Tori is sure that that was really Pan. This is one of my favorite moments.


The first picture of Tori in her yellow dress is her face when she first saw that Snow White was REALLY THERE!! She was SOOOOOOO Excited. Can you tell by the pics?

DISNEY WORLD!!!

We started off our trip to Disney World with the 14 hour drive to Florida. The kids were wonderful in the car. Before we headed off on our trip we had a talk about 2 families that took a trip to Disney. Family number one complained and wined and made mom and dad mad. They asked when are we going to get there, and made comments like I’m board. (You get the picture) then Family number 2 said thank you for everything, was kind and helpful, patient in line, and was happy to be together. We asked the kids what family they would want to go to Disney World with. They of course said family number two. Well little did I know that this little talk would turn into the theme of our trip. The kids started talking about these two families and it continued the whole trip. If someone started to wine, we would just say variations on “I think I saw family number one back there if you want to go and join them.” There was even one time where the Mom and Dad from family number 1 visited our trip, but it didn’t last too long. For the most part, our happy family number two had a WONDERFUL time together.

Our first day we spent at Magic Kingdom. It was such a ball, that place is perfect for little ones. Katie went on almost every ride with us, and was perfectly happy to do so. The lines were sometimes long, but entertaining, and the new policy of the ‘fast pass” has really made the line ups slick. On our first day we met Mickey Mouse and the kids really enjoyed that. Shortly after we also got to meet Chicken Little. Alex really liked these two meetings. The picture of him with Chicken Little is so funny. He turned Alexs hat sideways, and Alex giggled and giggled. I was glad that we had a little Disney Brush up the month before we left, so they actually knew who Dumbo was. They enjoyed all of the rides and were so happy and helpful. We stayed at Magic Kingdom on Monday until after midnight. It was a really long day.

On Tuesday, we got up and headed for Animal Kingdom. This day didn’t go as well as the others. This is the day that mom and dad from Family number one came to visit. The kids were all very tired. Liza wasn’t bad though, she was very interested in everything. We went to see this “Bugs Life” 3 D movie, which scared the pants off Alex and gave Tori quite a fright too. We eventually gave up on this park, as it was packed to the brim with people and we were all grouchy. The rides were for the most part too big for the little ones, and it was hotter then heck. We did go on the Safari, and it was kind of a let down too. We chalked the day up to a loss, I took the little ones back to the car for a rest while Brent ran Liza on river raft ride where they got soaked. We then headed to the Pirate Dinner. Upon arriving there, they had our reservation, but no seats available. After a little fit (thrown by yours truly) we sat front and center in seats that would have cost us $100 more to sit in. It was a fun dinner though. There was a pirate ship set up inside the building where the play took place. The show involved acting singing, trampoline tricks, some WWF style fighting, and even some trapeze work. It turned out to be another fun night.

On Wednesday we headed to Sea World. We had a blast. They have a new Shamu show and Alex just ate up the theme. It was about a little boy who dreamed of being a trainer, and how he really did become one. Alex is now going to be a trainer. We got to feed sting rays and (my personal favorite) DOLPHINS. It was so fun to feed and pet the dolphins. We watched shows, went on rides and even played in the sand. After yet another full day, we headed back with Dolphin toys and souvenirs in arms.

On Thursday we went to Epcot. This was a good slow day. Not too terribly much to do for the kids. What there was for them to do was calm and quite things, like crafts and projects. We did go on the new Nemo ride, that was really neat. It is so interesting to see the new technology and how they are using it. As we went to visit the countries, Brent and I had our selves all geared up for some YUMMY food. I hoping for Fries and Gravy, and a Canoli. Brent hoping for Crepes, and Frits. Well, I goy my Canoli, and Brent his Crepe, but no Frits and no gravy. Oh well. The Canoli was good, but no Mikes (these are in Boston) Really it just made me want Mikes all the more. We also had the Princess dinner at Epcot. You can’t even begin to imagine little Tori and all her excitement as we stood in our line for lunch with the princesses! When we saw snow white, she lit up! She was SO EXCITED! She and Liza both enjoyed meeting the princesses, but Liza gets that they are people in costumes. For Tori, this was the real deal. She had so many cute little questions and comments, I wish I had written them down. Alex didn’t like all the princesses coming up and calling him prince and asking him questions. He even hid his autograph book so that they would stop signing it. He eventually hid himself from them as well. J

On Friday we went back to Magic Kingdom and had another FULL day of fun. We doubled up the rides that the kids liked the most and made sure that we got to go on anything we missed. They hit Buzz Lightyear, Whinnie the Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Peter Pan twice. There was also a show called Mickeys Philharmagic. (this was Brents Favorite) This show was amazing and full of surprises. We saw it twice, and would have seen it again if there had been time. It was such a wonderful trip. The kids were all SO good and SO happy. The drive back went smoothly and we took a few days to recoup, but we are almost back up. The house is still a mess and I am just now starting to see the middle of the laundry pile, but it was worth it!! Enjoy the pics!

Peeking....

I plan to blog about Disney World ASAP, but the house is upside down now, so I HAVE got to get my feet under me first. :-) Stay tuned