June 2014 - Week 1 (Part 2): Chaos and Fun!!

So the first part of our week was nice and calm.
Nothing exciting.

The second half...
that got a tad bit more interesting...

Thursday evening I had been communicating,
via text,
 with our tenants,
about random things,
nothing really important.

Then I get a phone call,
I figured they were just tired of texting.
The voice on the other end of the phone
was a little panicked.

There was a problem...
a "water coming through the downstairs ceiling"
kind of problem.

ACK!

I was already planning to head in the direction of the house,
Raleigh area,
the next day to pick up my mom for a trip to my grandmother's.

However,
I had intended on cleaning up a little before we left,
and taking my time in getting to Raleigh.

But due to the minor waterfall in the house up there,
I decided to head up there,
meet the plumber and be a
good home owner/landlord.

So...everything kicked into high gear...
my "take my time to get to Raleigh by early mid-afternoon"
was kicked into high gear when I learned the plumber would
be there before lunch!

This was on my "to do" list:


This is what the playroom looked like.
I didn't want to leave it looking like this,
mainly because I didn't want to come HOME to it!

Unfortunately,
it had to wait.

So while I am running around packing,
 for the weekend,
for 5 people...
to leave the house in about 30 minutes time...

my 8 year old comes to me and says:
"um, mom, I put something in the outlet in my room...
and it made this really loud popping sound...
and smoke came out"

UM, WHAT??!!??

So I stopped what I was doing,
walked up to his room
and this is what I see.

Absolute shock,

bewilderment,

confusion...

My sweet 8 year old second child...

who KNOWS better...

picked up something little

off of his floor...

and for whatever reason...

unknown to me

(or him)

thought it would be a good idea to 

STICK IT INTO AN OUTLET!!!

AN ELECTRICAL OUTLET!!!

Praise the LORD!

Praise!!

That he did not injure himself!

But why,

why,

why...

would you do that?

What were you thinking?

His response...

"well the last time I did it,

nothing happened"

WHAT?!?!

Yep,

just what I needed,

right when I needed it.

 So not deciding not to deal with it right then...
I flipped the breaker and turned the power off to that room.
(I have now been told that it wasn't a necessary step,
but I don't care, I felt better...
made me feel like it was reducing the chances
of the house burning down while we were gone.)

We hightailed it to Raleigh,
I met my folks at a restaurant
literally had my mom meet me in the parking lot to swap keys.

Left the kids with her,
jumped in her car
and took off to house.

I arrived right after the plumber.
Thankfully,
he only had to put a few "minor" holes in the ceiling...
then in a wall upstairs...
to find and quickly
correct the problem.

I contacted the drywall guy and left a happy girl.

I get to my folk's house
and was greeted by my dad asking...
"how old are the tires on your car?"

Um, I don't know...
I know - we need new ones soon,
but they just aren't in the budget right now
and aren't really a priority.

He changes my mind for me,
and off we go to the tire shop.

I picked these out first,
complete with the rims...
but the hubs said no.

Finally found a reasonable set...

and apparently I needed tires worse than I realized.

(Left: old, Right: new)

While we were waiting on the tires,

we decided to walk over to the Harris Teeter 

(my favorite grocery store)

in the same parking lot.

The just happened to have a sale on wine...

so this is what I walked out with.

(Happy Girl!!)

 Phew...after all of that excitement...
we FINALLY loaded up and headed to my grandmother's house.
This is where all 4 of the kid slept.
The 2 littles were on the little bed in the middle.
I thought this was a cute picture.

The next day,

Saturday,

we decided to try out a little park about 20 minutes away,

that my grandmother had told us about.

She lives in a very small town in South Carolina...

well outside of a very small town,

and honestly,

I didn't know anything about the little town,

or what it had,

because we hardly ever leave her property!

We hit the local small town grocery store

to grab some popsicles to eat at the park.

And getting 4 kids to decide on ONE pack of popsicles

is dad-gum near impossible!

And it was quite entertaining for 2 of the customers

that happened to be walking down the freezer aisle

the same time we were there.

The took a shine to the Mr. T...

talked with him and laughed with him.

Then went on about their business.

About 30 seconds later, they came back around the corner...

and told me that they would like to buy him the popsicles HE wanted.

How sweet!!!

I said ok,

and the scary part...

he followed right behind them...

without looking back to make sure I was coming...

NOT ONCE!

UGH!

He was a happy boy.

I asked if I could take their picture

and send it to their daddy.

So back in the car we got,

and on down the road we went...

to this "little park".

It was 

ADORABLE!!!

We all loved it!

Every once in a while,

they would take a popsicle break.

And since his desire for a "blue" popsicle was 

the WHOLE reason he got those popsicles...

This guy got ALL of the blue ones!

And enjoyed...

Every Lick!

And turned into a Smurf...

from the inside...

out!

(Luckily it did eventually wipe off.)

And since we were out in the country...
what better way to drink your wine...
than out of a mini mason jar?!?!

This is roughing it...
mini mason jar of wine (which I AM a fan of)
styrofoam plate (which I am NOT a fan of),
good country cooking (which I AM a fan of),
and an awesome fire
(for roasting marshmallows on!)

As if they hadn't had enough excitement and exercise for one day...

the big boys decided to hit the pond.

The next morning,

they were up bright and early,

to do a little fishing....

and that is exactly what they caught...

a little fish!

After another busy day,

the littles passed out pretty early.

When I went to check on them,

this is what I saw,

I think I was "supposed" to sleep in that bed too.

Monday morning, 

we loaded up,

said our good-byes and headed a little further south 

to meet some cousins that had flown all the way from

Washington state to visit!

I was so excited.

I hadn't seen them literally in 20 years or so

and thankfully for Facebook,

we are all connected!

We had such a good visit with them!

Here are all of the second cousins (is that right?)

that were together - this is not ALL of them though!

They are all my grandmother's great-grandchildren.

Here are all of the cousins that were able to get together.

Half are from Washington.

Super sweet girl cousin hugs!!!

Unfortunately, 

we could only stay for a little while and visit.

I wanted to stay

and almost did...

but had to get my mom home,

so she could go do something called 

WORK!

So we vowed to not let it be 20 years before we could visit again!

(So thankful for Facebook!)

On the way home, this beautiful rainbow crossed our path.

It brought me so much peace!

June 2014 - Week 1 (Part 1): The Calm

Ok, so now I am 6 months behind and starting a new year on the calendar...while I am still attempting to update this blog (which has more turned into a family yearbook more than anything else at this point).  Our June started off with a trip to Raleigh to take the hubs to the airport.  Daddy  (the perpetual student) was heading to Lubbock to work on his Ph.D.  While we were in Raleigh, we spent some time with my bestie.  Her youngest is the same age as my boys.  So he took them out exploring their neighborhood and the creek that runs through it.  They came home with some friends...of the aquatic/marine nature.

This is how we got to see daddy for 2 weeks...

Thank goodness for Skype!!

While he was gone, 

his spot, in bed, 

was kept warm and occupied on occasion

by this little cutie.

(and sometimes his sister, too)

I definitely enjoyed having this little snuggle bug join me in the mornings.

And I love these curls too!! Look at that hair!!

To keep ourselves busy:

We made candy covered cake balls,

with leftover caketops I found in the freezer,

and icing

and candy melts.

And sprinkles, of course!!

We had friends over for playtime and lunch!

Then went to swim lessons at the local Y,

but it looks like the kids could have gone swimming 

in the puddles in the parking lot!!!

Thankfully,

it was a pretty uneventful first week of daddy being away!

May 2014 - Randomness

We were able to squeeze in a few more 

photo worthy

adventures

into May.

Believe it or not...

Apparently - 

this is how you watch TV.

This is the cutest

melt 

down

EVER!!!

I am guessing he didn't get a long enough nap,

because this is how he passed out...

before bedtime.

We continued to work on our garden.

Here are the seedlings.

I am still quite nervous to put them outside. 

Because that is when the challenge starts!

We finally got them outside and planted!

And they didn't do too great.

They didn't have enough "food".

We eventually fixed that, 

but it really hurt the timeline and growth.

The littles found interesting ways to 

entertain themselves while the boys 

took their pre-swim team class.

We had a birthday breakfast at Krispy Kreme

for Rico-man!

He turned 10!!

I made this Mounds Cake

for him earlier in the month.

Then he decided that he would rather go to the beach

than have a party.

(more about that later)

We took the day off of school

and

just enjoyed being together!

Then later in the month,

we made time for a quick trip to Raleigh to join

my sister and her friend at

one of our favorite parks up there:

Pullen Park!

I will leave you with two pictures.

This one I stumbled upon in our storage area.

No words will do - 

I love this man 

and 

am so proud of him and who he is!

 And why not finish off

with one more crazy sleeping shot of

Tony Cruz.

He tries so hard to keep up with his older siblings

that he literally wears himself out!

May 2014: Road Trip #3

We love love love our camper.

We put it up in January 

and were eager to get it back out again.

We had a few things to do to it before

we started using it for the season.

The typical pre-season clean up

(even though we clean it before we put it up,

and it stays sealed,

it still needs a good once over)

I also wanted the shower door replaced.

The old door was an accordion type door.

That was just not good!

In any way!

So the hubs replaced it for me.

(Because he only uses this shower 

when there is not a decent bath house nearby

and that is probably because the shower is not meant

for tall, broad shouldered guys!)

 I am not 100% sure what this picture is for,

but you can see the door track on the left.  

I think we needed a new shower head and hose too.

Hubby removed the old door and frame,

and installed this awesome foldout/foldin

shower curtain rod.

It folds in for storage and transport

and out to give you (well me) TONS of elbow room.

See how "well" he fits in this shower.

My crew loves this camper so much,

that they come and just hang out in it

once it hits the driveway and gets set up!

Rico hadn't completed his school work on this day,

and chose to complete it in his bed in the camper,

while daddy and I worked.

Jackson and the littles watched a movie.

(if you look in the back ground,

you can see the old shower door to the left of the TV)

The finished product!

Thank you daddy!!

I found this gem on my phone with the rest of these camper pictures,

I don't remember taking it,

but it is a really cute one of us!

We headed out and

 tried out a new spot, close to home.

But it was not my favorite.

It was way too crowded and

meant mainly for seasonal or permanent folks.

The spots for campers were too close together,

the man made beach on the lake

was covered in pinecones so my poor guys kept stepping on them

going to and from the water,

their was, apparently, no "curfew" or quiet time,

there was also no age minimum on individuals who could 

drive golf carts unsupervised and we witnessed 

two groups of children hit each other in their carts

(and I can't help to think it could have been a child on a bike or a walker!)

and plenty of reckless driving by children.

We still had a good time,

but we won't be running back there anytime soon.

And really didn't get any pictures worth sharing.

Spring 2014 Soccer Pictures

This past spring all 4 of our kids played soccer

with

Upward Sports.

Tony Cruz was the biggest ham!

It was the first time he had played 

organized sports

and

he constantly had the fans in the stands,

in stitches laughing at his antics on the soccer field!

 He and Alexis were on the same team,

and I decided to be assistant coach,

since 1/3 of the team belonged to me!

I have never played a day of organized soccer 

IN.MY.LIFE!

But I can corral kids

and at this age,

you are lucky to get them to kick the ball

in the right direction...

so there is really no need of knowledge of the game.

Thankfully!

My husband also got roped into coaching.

He coached Jackson's team.

He had to be a little more concerned with 

the rules and stuff,

but not much!

Haha!

I was also blessed with the opportunity to take their team pictures.

Here are the ones of my crew.

(yep, we are in trouble!)