Our Weekend...

Okay...on to the fun stuff!!

So Jack got his 1st Thomas the Tank Engine track set this weekend!! He was super excited and so was everyone else in the house :-) We got him the "trackmaster" set so he could use the remote to control the trains and the other trains move by themselves....that was great until we realized how many batteries we'd be going through :-) We've already replaced two of the train's!! Jack loves to leave them on and just watch the wheels go round and round! I'm sure once the newness dies down it won't be so bad :-)

Thomas going over the bridge...
Hailey really likes this too! She gets a little frustrated when the trains fall off the track or run into each other. It just gets a little too chaotic when there is more than one going at a time. But I think they'll get the hang of it. Darren gives it two weeks and he thinks they'll have it broken :-)
See Jack's face...He's about to get ticked cuz Daddy's touching his Percy!!
Okay...now everybody sing along..."They're 2, They're 4, They're 6, They're 8...."

Just kidding...but seriously the song is so stuck in my head...the remote has it on there and Jack just keeps playing it over and over and says "Momma (that's what he calls me now) they sing it again!!"

Last night Joe and Bry had us come over to their gorgeous new house for a little cook-out. We had a great time and the food was so good. Everybody brought side dishes and Joe grilled. I however almost ran out of gas on the way out there. They live in the middle of nowhereville and my gas light came on so Joe gave me a little boost of lawnmower gas to get me back into town! Thanks Joe!! We made it all the way back home :-} After dinner we had watermelon on the deck...this was how I found Jack...he'd already had 4 pieces!!Hailey was dying of thirst...she'd been exploring their backyard/forest and was sweating like crazy! She had a blast and said next time she is wearing her boots so she can go in the woods!! FlipFlops are not the right kind of shoes for that kind of playing!
Piece number 5!!Now Bella (Bry's puppy) can lick all that yummy, sticky, sweetness of Jack's face!

We didn't get home till almost 10 and the kids stayed up another hour playing guess what....trains! (I was doing the research online) But once we got to bed we all slept so good and we all slept in this morning :-) But we had a great Saturday doing the yard. I mowed while the kids played and then planted some new flowers....Just a nice, easy Saturday. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!!

Heartbroken

I can't sleep...I just feel sick to my stomach and more than anything I want to pick up the phone and scream at someone on the other end but it's 1am...I don't think they'd like that too much. They probably wouldn't like that it's 1am either... Yesterday Darren basically sat his mother down and looked her square in the eye and wanted to know all about his dad. Where they met, when they divorced, why they divorced. Then he wanted to know if she had any idea where he might be....now remember.... Darren is 28. His father left when he was 2 and he's never even seen a picture of him. He's asked his mother about this before, like when we were getting married and when we were having our first child. All she handed us was his other grandmother's old address (it's no good, we looked it up when we first got married). Well....what do you know...yesterday she magically says that long ago when Darren was like 15 she told him that when he was ready she would give him a folder with everything in it!!! What the CRAP?!? He does not remember that. So today she dropped off an envelope that had an old tax form with his ssn (can you say awesome?) and their divorce record...still no picture though. Darren had already left for work so after me and the kids got back from our evening out I just popped in the ssn into Google and it took me to these sites where they will check the status for free. It took me all of like 5 min. and we've been looking for him for 7+ years with just his name and birthday....Well I found him! In Florida, Jacksonville to be exact. But we're 10 months too late... he passed away July 30, 2007. I tripled checked with other sites just to make sure and they all gave me the same info. I just started bawling. I called my dad and mom. I didn't know what to do...Do I call Darren at work? I couldn't go to sleep without telling him. I wanted to scream at his mom for keeping this from him. If we'd just had it all this time we'd have been able to find him sooner and maybe Darren could have had better closure than just death. So I called him and asked him to stop by the house whenever he got a chance, that of course scared him and he came right home. He was heartbroken when I let it out. I'm so sad for him, I think he thought this was going to be it...he'd finally find him. I didn't know what else to do so I just decided to blog about it...I hated that he had to turn around and go back to work. I told him that we could try to find where he is buried and maybe any survieing realitives...they would have a picture. AUGHHH!! I'm just sick over it...And yesterday was his dad's birthday...May 29th...how weird is that?!?

School's Out for Summer!!

Well...we did it! We survived another year of preschool (Jack's first). It was so much fun, even better this year because we had our bestest friend, Ralston, at school with us :-} Here are some pictures to get you updated on our week. We've been a little busy with anniversay celebrations and taking care of Memaw while my parents went out of town. I've been checking all your blogs, just not taking the time to post on mine!

Last weekend was our first time getting the sprinklers out this year! The kids had a BLAST! It took Jack some time to warm up to getting all wet but he finally got the hang of it.

This makes me a little sad...

This is their fist day of school picture! They look like babies and it was only 9 months ago!!
Here they are on their last day of school!! Crazy kiddos!!....

By the way...that is a toothbrush Jack is holding :-} It sings the Thomas the Train song so he LOVES it and took it to school a lot! This was graduation night. The K-4 kids graduate and the other grades put on a little program. It was really cute as always!

Jack and Ms. Jennifer (K-2)

She was Hailey's teacher last year too. We love her bunches and hope to keep in touch since she is going to teach at public school next year.

Hailey and Ms. Shelia (K-3) It was so much fun being in her class and we just might get to be in her class next year with Jack...we'll have to see?!?

Here's the boys crammed in the pews waiting for the graduation part to get over with...we soon escaped to the foyer to just hang out till it was over :-}

Riley, Ralston, and Jack

Here are two little videos of the kids singing their songs. You can see Hailey, Jack and Ralston is sitting next to Jack. Sorry they are a little jumpy...there were a lot of crazy parents trying to get shots of thier kids :-}

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was our 7 year anniversary!! Sometimes it feels like just yesterday and some days....it feels like we've been doing this for so much longer :-)
I was 19, Darren 21 and we had no clue what we were getting into...do we ever?!?But I wouldn't change a thing, through all the ups and downs we are truly blessed and I know we'll grow old together...griping at each other all the way :-)

Future Bloggers?!?

My future bloggers were busy working on their first post. Jack was a little put out that he wasn't getting to add as much to the post as he thought he should. That's right Jack, just stick out that lip whenever you want something! It worked! He got his turn :-)

Don't you love Hailey's hair?!? She picked out two clips and two bands and told me where she wanted them!Did you know NKOTB reunited?!?

S.W.A.T. Competition 2008Every year during Police Week the W.R.P.D. hosts the S.W.A.T. Competition. This year we only had two teams compete due to the bad weather in the area the weekend before. It was still a lot of fun though. I took my mom and brother to watch some of the activities. We missed the firing competition (early in the morning). But Darren won 1st place in two areas and 2nd in another!! Yeah Baby!

Here they are starting the obstacle course. They ran it twice...
Then drug body ..... and army crawled ....
Run to next place...abandoned house...
Run to firing range....shoot 2 to body 2 to head and repeat! Then game over!!
These were our snipers up on the hill....they had to fire first before starting the next competition
Then they did a mock entrance on a house with a "door ram" They had to shoot things inside and clear it....
It was really cool watching them do their stuff...

I Would Die For That

I found this song on a blog of a woman who is trying to adopt and has lost three adoptions while in process. I'm not a huge country fan and usually listen to "kids songs" in the van so I'm not up on what's on the radio :-) But this song touched me. It is very appropriate since we just celebrated Mothers Day. It made me really appreciate how easy I was able to conceive my children and I will always keep those mothers in my prayers who are trying so hard to become what their heart already is.

Thursday Thoughts

This week I have not been as devoted to my studies as I needed to be...nothing to blame it on, just doing other things. We've had a lot of tragedy in our area this past week or so and it got me thinking about loss though. Between the tornadoes and some deaths that have occurred I've had a lot on my mind how our possessions and time here on earth is just temporary. I'm not scared of the loss of my own life but I am petrified of the loss of life of any of my friends or family. I just don't want to experience the pain. I can't imagine it. We've had two car accidents this week (one teenager, and one adult) who both lost their lives and left families behind. We know their families through friends and I can't imagine what they are going through. The wife of the man even brought the casket home and put it in her room until the funeral....The teenager was supposed to graduate this year and had his whole life ahead of him. And as far as possessions go...I know we look at our houses and cars as if they define who we are...but when things like tornadoes, hurricanes, floods destroy them....you realize how superficial they are! We can't take stuff with us and there is a reason for that. We would be killing each other over crap if life was all about what kind of stuff we had.

I don't really think I have too much of a problem with material items but I do find myself always wanting to "fix up" my house :-) But what I do need to work on is my fear of loss. I sometimes get carried away thinking of lots of ways things can go wrong and what bad stuff can happen instead of just having faith that He will take care of those that I love and that if it is our time then so be it. I know this is kind of morbid but it is what's on my mind today :-)

Just go fly a Kite!

I've got a lot of catching up to do...Darren has been super busy this week with Field Sobriety training on his days off and then he had his LAST finals for his college classes. He is officially done with college :-) His actually graduation will be June 5th down in Valdosta. He got his Bachelor's in Criminal Justice!! I'm really proud of him and REALLY glad he is done...school takes so much time but it is so worth it. Okay...now that I'm done bragging about him :-) On with the kids...

Jack had water day at school last Tuesday. He was not too interested in getting wet. Sarah and I came to enjoy the fun and stayed busy trying not to get soaked by the other 2yr olds :-)

Mother's Day 2008

This was taken right after church.

This one however was taken at home after lunch and by then the kids were wack-o :-}
Check out my three Capt. Morgan's!! Papa, Jack and Hailey! Kids with Papa and Granma
Darren sent me flowers for Mother's Day. They are beautiful. Lots of pink lillys and roses and so many others. Hailey and Jack made me some really cute things in school but I haven't taken pictures yet. I'll have to do it this week and post them later. Hailey made me a bag with a butterfly on it made out of her hands! And Jack made me a Popsicle picture frame :-)

After we changed out of our church clothes we went to fly our kites because we were having lots of wind that day...and the next. There is a big field behind our house and the other neighborhood. (By the way, Middle GA had 11 tornadoes mother's day morning. Our county was not one of them but Macon had severe damage and it's only 20min. north. They were all around us and thankfully we only had a few branches down in our yard. You can see pics at this site)

Hailey had a blast running to get her kite up in the air

Daddy had to rescue Jack's from the big bush! But the next day he had to rescue it off the roof of the auto shop on the other side of the field! Jack let go of the handle and it took off flying :-} I so wish I had my camera that day...my little baby was running just as fast of his daddy trying to catch his Buzz Lightyear kite!

I think Hailey is getting worn out. This is a good nap inducer :-)Monday night I took the kids to Monday Night for the Master at church. Our project was planting flowers for our shut-ins. Hailey put about three scoops of dirt in and then went to play on the playground! Thank goodness the older kids were there to get the job done!Hunter helping Nathan put fertilizer in his flower pot.Arianna made little heart name cards for each of them. We planted twelve pots. Arianna is also our new babysitter. She watched my two a few weeks ago and they loved her!! She was such a sweetie and they had a blast with her that night!I just had to post this pic too... I bought Pedro a new pillow bed and Darren didn't think he'd get on it :-) Well here he is and guess what...he's on it right now instead of the couch!! He loves it!