The Black Kids

Last night I went the the 4o Watt club in Athens to see my cousin. Kevin is the drummer for the Black Kids band. It was so much fun. This is the famous club in Athens that REM played at. My cousin has been playing in a band since he was a teen. Their music has a retro 80's feel. They are #5 in London. And they have been on the Letterman show and will be on the Tonight Show.

My mom, her friend and two of my friends met for dinner at a Belgium pub. Then my cousin, Kevin met us there. WOW has he grown....6'5". I am the same age as his older brother. My aunt had 5 boys and the last were twins. So Kevin is the youngest twin. I think it's kind of cool that Kevin's twin brother has twin girls.

Well we spent the longest time getting reconnected and talked about how their success came about. He is such a nice person. I am very impressed with his attitude and his vision. I believe they will go far.

After going to another place for dessert we heading into the club, felt to special, we were on the guest list and just walked right in, we were 'with the band'. The opening act was still playing so we went to the look at the tour bus and talk MORE.

After hearing them play we headed home and I passed out!

It was a great evening. But I understand why you this kind of partying when you are young! I did not bounce back so fast.

Here Kevin is talking with my friend, Helen on the phone. She could not come...so cute!

A Full Day

We had a full and fun day. We decided to start the day with a walk through Bear Hollow. This is a great place in Athens. Shannon has even volunteered at the nature center. They have several animals that have been rescued and cannot be released back in the wild. It's also next to a great pond to walk around. This place reminds me of our old playgroup in Covington. But the best part, it's FREE.

We met Ryan there and then started walking, no plans just see how the day unfolds. I wanted to share some great pictures that Shannon took of some plants & flowers. I think they are great, but I am her mother. She is really starting to get into photography. I so need to get her a better camera and have her hang out with Andrea!

After walking and looking, we went to the Athens Library for the kids' book club. Ran into a awesome friend Stephanie (another LLL Leader)while I was there. Things just work out the way they should. We got to have a mini meeting with a mom at the library. I heard a baby of about 2-3 mths just crying it's head off....I had to find this baby. Well Stephanie had the same thought, we almost ran into each other, we had to seek, find and fix this baby. Happy to say all ended well, baby and mommy settled into a nice nursing moment...with the two of us smiling!

After the library I dropped Shannon off for her clarinet lesson. Then I took the kids home, put baby down for nap, feed other kids, baby wakes up, picked up Shannon, made cookies, made dinner for tonight and tomorrow night, schooled some, straighten up, feed baby, put baby down for nap, made snack for kids, listened to them practice instruments and read, give baby to mother, finish dinner, cleaned up, Patrick comes home, two kids go do horse chores, eat dinner, make beds for guest, mother arrives with a friend, chat, put my babies to bed and finally update blog.

The End.....to a long day. But I feel good about it all.

17 Years of Happiness

Well, it's really longer than that but today is my 17th year wedding anniversary. And I am celebrating it with my kids since my husband had to go to Atlanta to work today. But that's OK for the last few years we have gone out with our kids, we enjoy being together!

But I wanted to write and tell you how I fell in love with my best friend--Patrick, other than the obvious-he's cute!

I was 18 years old and quit college after 1 semester. Then my parents moved to NC. I decided to stay here in GA. OK I am on my own??? So I got a job at Wendy's in a mall (yes, I was a mall rat). How boring, I was a fry girl (not a fly girl). I kind of liked the no brainer job and I met LOTS of people. After a few months I became the opening manger (not hard to become if you have a brain). Every morning when I opened the store my first costumer was this sad looking blonde guy. He ordered the same thing every morning and did NOT engage in conversation. All the employees at the store would tease me, "Hey, here comes a cute guy for you" Patrick worked at another restaurant in the mall. And he is 6 years older than me so he looked like an old man to a 18 year old. Well that was the first time I saw Patrick.

Weeks later while at a singles night out at a club he recognized me. He said, "Aren't you that 'kid' that works at Wendy's?" Well I was so embarrassed and said I did not want to ever talk to him again. Then a few weeks later I saw him at one of our church activities. There's that guy again. I did NOT talk with him. Like I said I was quite a bit younger so we hung out with different groups of people. But he was everywhere I happened to be. I grew up in this church so I knew everyone. Everyone liked Patrick, they said he is a nice guy. Even my family kept saying it. Patrick even helped my parents move back to Atlanta.

Well over time I did talk to Patrick and yes he was a nice guy. Patrick, my roommate and I quickly became friends. The three of us did everything and went every where together. I remember calling Patrick up one night asking if he would go to the movies with me because I did not want to go alone, he did, and I never thought more about it except he was one of my best friends. The two of us became even more close. I never thought about anything more than friendship with Patrick since I was so much younger. He did secretly.

Then the day came I told him I was moving to NC to go back to college. This was hard on him. Well for the next year he came and visited me. Those were so long weekends for him driving back and forth. I still thought he was a great friend. Until one day a girl asked if there was something between us, " Why? Me and Patrick? No, we are 'just' friends!" I was kind of defensive, OK I was down right mad that she was interested in him. Well, he's MY best friend, right? One of my NC friends told me I was jealous and I totally showed it in my face when she asked about us. I totally denied it. I can't like Patrick, he's my best friend, I tell him everything! He knew more about me than he should have known. (Come to think about, it's kind of cool, that he still liked me after knowing all my dark secrets...wow!)

A couple days later and a lot of soul searching (and crying) I realized I did like him. He was the nicest guy I knew. He was always there for me with no strings attached.

I called him up and said we need to talk and have a real date. My dad was going to be in a play, thought this was a safe start. So Patrick drove from Atlanta to Charlotte, NC to Murphy, NC and then took me back to Charlotte and then back to Atlanta in 2 days. That's a lot of miles!! Well, after the play was over we were walking out and he held my hand. I thought I was going to die! It felt so right and better yet, he was holding my hand in front of my dad. No boy has ever tried that before (you have to know my dad....he is tough!). I thought wow, he felt comfortable doing that in front of MY dad, he's got guts! So we planned our next date. And that night he kissed me good night. I know this will sound movieish but I knew I was going to marry this boy!

6 months later we were married.

4 years later we had our first baby.

12 years later we had our last baby.

17 years later I still love to kiss and hold his hand.

21 years later I still love to serve him fries!

We have been through all the normal marriage issues but I know I married my best friend. This story proves nice guys do have it all! I hope my girls will find a man like their dad to marry. And I hope my boys will treat their wives like Patrick treats me-very sweet!

Happy Anniversary Patrick!

I love you, pickle man!

Spiderwick Party

I was not going to post about this but it turned out so well I needed to....for Shannon's 13th birthday we had a Spiderwick Sleep-over party. She had three friends

come. When they came in the door there were jars filled with colored water around the room....we asked if they could see anything in them? All said no, since they did not have the "sight" they could not see the creatures (more on this later). Everyone unpacked their things and talked for a little while. Then we ate pizza and soda. Then had cake, Shannon wanted dragons on it since this was a make-believe party. She requested a chocolate cake. The girls sang to her even though Shannon did not want them, too. After dinner they feed the horse. Then we watched the movie Spiderwick. Only one other girl besides Shannon has read the books. All my kids loved the 5 book series. It is a very intense movie. I would not have let my 5 year see it if not for, well the littlest one sees more things then the first. They had popcorn and some junk candy (which my kids never get, they were so surprised). But to contrary belief they did not gorge themselves. They made sure everyone got some. Towards the end of the movie I slipped a small torn note in the sofa. Someone found it and it read a riddle on how to find Mr. Spriderwick's Fieldguide. We hid it the same as in the book. Wrapped in brown paper, tied with string, sealed with wax, wrapped in old shirt, hide in a trunk. All this was hidden in the room. After they found the book, looked through it (it's a really cool field guide) they headed out to the trampoline with glow necklaces and bracelets. The younger children went to bed. They jumped for almost an hour, even in the rain....crazy girls.

They came in and changed into bed clothes.

Shannon opened presents. They then just hung out all night, I was with them while they showed each other stuff on computer. Not one complained of me watching over them and the computer...great girls! Then they went upstairs to sleep....after a few minutes of chatting. This was around 2am. Then I made the room change into Mr. Spriderwick's laboratory. Filled the jars with creatures (told you it was coming), hung fake spider webs every where, set tomato juice, oatmeal, salt, & honey on counter (see the movie or read the books to find out why you need this stuff), and even wrote on the walls coming down the stairs, "Click, Clack, watch your back." (I wrote with chocolate, so I could wipe it off...didn't have anything else).

The next morning, Jack hid the riddle clues through out the yard. When the girls woke up and came down stairs they read the message on the wall and we squirt water in their faces (this is how you get the sight, again read the book)....plus it woke them up more. Then they could 'see' the creatures in the jars....also they were surprised at all the room decor....this set the stage for the whole day. They feed the horse, then we had pancakes with strawberries, blue berries and whipped cream, yum!

Then the games began. They wore red shirts...did you know that sprites do not like red? They first made a circle of protection around the house.

Then we through fake bombs (water balloons) at the approaching trolls (siblings-Jack, Kelly Belle, & Kyle). Then they went on a Sprite riddle hunt. Shannon made up all the riddles, they were great!!! We rolled them up and sealed each one with hot wax seal. We even hid one at the creek in a bottle...so fun. Who says you need formal poetry class...she wrote 7 riddles this weekend that rhymed and made you think!

After the games we did lots of crafts. 1: Made Sprites, out of silk flowers 2: Fieldguides, notebooks 3: Pixie potion jars, sand art 4: Dragon figure, too big, sent home to finish. 5: Brownie house, this was a group effort for Shannon's brownie. Had bags that they decorated to take everything home in.

We ended the day with lunch, and then 'Brownie' (read the book) sundaes.

All the girls got along and we all had a fun! I was tired but I would do it again....it turned out great.

NOT Professional Dancers

Shannon had a few friends over for her birthday.

This is so sad>>>>

But I have to say they all had fun! Nice to see all age groups play so well together. I love homeschooling!

4-H Elections

Jack ran for President of his 4-H club.
Campaign slogan: "Jack's Got YOUR Back!"
Shannon ran for Secretary.
Campaign Slogan: : "Vote for Shannon, the REAL McCoy"

First Tooth

Yesterday Kyle lost his first tooth. After weeks of waiting it finally came. He wiggled it all day until we were driving to pick up the van from the shop when he said "my tooth is gone". He smiled and yes, it was gone but where? We looked all over the van and I thought oh know he swallowed it like Shannon did her first tooth. But no it was suck to his tummy. The daddy tooth farey brought him a star wars toy....times have changed, no money, just star wars stuff. True Boy!

BTW-I save all their baby teeth, if you have a suggestion of what to do with them, let me know. Yes, I am that sentimental! I love everything about my kids.