We're Home!!

We are finally back home, and all three of us are glad to be. We are done with our traveling for the summer, and I have several projects at home that I plan on working on for the next 3 weeks. Other than that, things are just great & I'm one week of oatmeal baths away from feeling back to myself again!

Some Time to Myself

I've got a little bit of time to myself, Lex is napping, and Michael is at work. So I decided to update. My week has gotten better, considerably. Although, I did get a few more mosquito bites, and had to resort to Calamine lotion because hydrocortizone cream just wasn't fixing the itch. So now I feel better, although I am pink and splotchy from the lotion. Anyway, Michael's grandma is doing much better. Her blood pressure is up and they are moving her to the TCU (I think that's right) floor tomorrow. Michael's parent's came back for the doctor report on Wednesday, and they left out again today for San Antonio. They are going to Sea World (after some talking into on our part!), and doing some other things in the great state of Texas. (I'll probably get kicked out of AR now...) Anyway, I have been staying busy, playing with Alexis & reading. I need to finish coloring my work job boxes, but seriously I'm so tired of coloring chickens & birthday cakes. Any takers?? Just kidding. I will finish them maybe next week. I reread the 6th Harry Potter while I've been down here. I'd forgotten everything about it, and wanted to refresh my memory. Michael and I are going to try for a date night soon so we can go see the new Harry Potter movie. Anyway, we have one more day here & then are leaving Saturday, and I had better go and start dinner!

NOT a Delta Girl

We are spending this week in Pine Bluff. Michael's dad and step mom went on vacation, and we are house sitting/business sitting for them. I have never been shy about the fact that I really don't like this part of the state. With the mosquitoes the size of butterflies, and the stinch from the paper mill it is not the most pleasant area I've been in. However, this is where my in-laws live so like it or not I've become familiar with the area. This week no one is here to entertain me while Michael is working. Michael's grandma (who lives right next door) is in the hospital, and of course Michael's parents are gone. So it's just me and Alexis, which is fine, but the biggest problem I have with this area is the lack of things to do in it. The mall only has 3 open stores now, and there's just not much else. Now, don't get me wrong I grew up in a small town too, and even smaller town to be exact. There was absolutely nothing to do, and we had to go to Conway for even a Wal-Mart Supercenter until I was a senior in high school. I remember when McDonald's arrived in Clinton. Then I moved to Searcy, which is a bigger town, but still not much to do. Then about 4 years ago I moved to Conway. Conway has boomed in the past 5 years, and I have everything at my fingertips. Michael says I've gotten spoiled to the city life, or more city than I'm used to. I would have to agree. I'm pretty sure it would be super hard for me to move back to a small town. I do like living in a city, and wouldn't mind living in a bigger one. However, this week I'm "roughing it", oh and have I mentioned the 23 mosquito bites on me, yes, I counted. And, don't get me started on the Wal-Mart here......maybe Alexis and I can find something to do tomorrow...

Productive Already

This morning I've already done 2 loads of laundry, packed for our week in Pine Bluff, done a load of dishes, cleaned the kitchen, gotten Lex up, ready, and fed, took the dogs out...and it's only 7:50 am.

Girl's Weekend is Officially Over....Thank You God!

This weekend Michael went to his friend's house up in Rogers (3 hours away from us) to visit. I was actually pretty excited, not that Michael was going to be gone, but that meant we had a girl's weekend to plan!! Michael left Thursday night, and Alexis and I had a movie night. We watched Elmo in Grouchland. She loves all things muppets, and she watched the whole movie. Friday, Alexis was in a horrible mood, and was no fun to be around. She pitched her first store fit. I went to Hobby Lobby to find some embellishments for the scrapbook I'm working on. She started yelling about 10 minutes after we got in the store, and she didn't stop the rest of the day, or night. Enough said, I salvaged my night by watching Legally Blonde 1 & 2, and painting my nails "Orange You Cute". Saturday, I made plans to go visit my parents at their house. My mom asked me to pick up her Hallmark ornaments for her. She just had a hip replacement and couldn't do it herself. Anyway, I went and found all but one of her ornaments, got in the car, got Alexis in and was headed to her house. And...you guessed it! Dead car! This makes 3 times in 2 weeks that I have been stranded in a parking lot, twice with the baby. I called my mom to tell her I would be late, or not coming. I called my brother & my grandparents to come and get me. My brother was at work, but my grandpa saved the day! The car wouldn't start by jumping it. So he brought Alexis and I home. By this time I was hungry, hot, tired, and mad. Not a good combination. So I just wanted to stay home. Alexis and I salvaged our day by playing outside in the pool, sandbox, and swing set. She also played with her big ball and was kicking it around the yard. So cute!! Anyway, that was our weekend. I'm glad Michael is home, and I'm taking a nap.

Worse than "no"..but too sweet!

Alexis and I have been eating a lot of blueberry pancakes! I bought some good, sweet, blueberries at the store and have been trying to eat them up before they went bad. Michael doesn't like blueberries, so we have to eat them that much faster since only two of us are eating them. We had blueberry pancakes for dinner tonight. She ate a whole one, which was pretty thick, and had blueberries all over her of course. So after dinner, we went to wash up, and I was washing her face with a washcloth. She yelled at me "Mama....top it, top it, top it!!" I laughed so hard. She was telling me to stop it!! (If the words mama, and stop or "top" were a half second closer together, I would be bragging that my little smartie pants just said her first sentence. But, I'll save that for another day!) It was so funny, she was so mad, but I had to laugh. I, of course, finished getting all the blueberries of her little body, sat her down, and she stomped off huffing. Too precious. Here is a pic of her eating blueberry pancakes for breakfast on Thursday!

Right Now...

Right now I am laying oh so quietly on my bed hoping that if I make no noise, Alexis will fall asleep. She woke up in a bad mood this morning, took a morning nap, woke up in a worse bad mood, and was pitching fits and rubbing her eyes so hard I put her down for afternoon nap an hour earlier than usual.

Right now, she has been laying in her bed for 20 minutes crying on and off...right now, she is yelling/crying "Happy, happy, happy, haaaaapppy..." She does not sound happy. But, hopefully she is talking herself into it.

Broken & Dora

We had several things decide to break in the past 2 weeks. First, the day after we got back from our trip Alexis and I had an appointment, and on the way home I stopped by the bank to make a quick deposit. So, I got Alexis out (still sick!) went in, came back out and the car wouldn't start. Aggravated because I was stranded with a sick baby that could explode any moment, I called Michael and he came to get me. We put the car seat in the Jeep, decided the battery died, and while Michael went to get the old battery out of the car, Alexis got sick again. So instead of just running to get a new battery I got taken home with the baby, dropped off with the gross car seat, and cleaned everything/everyone up again. Michael went to get a battery, went to the bank put it in, drove the car home, walked back to the bank (it's only maybe a mile away from our house but he was sick too!) got the Jeep and came home. When he told me he walked from the bank I was pretty shocked, but he said that he just wanted to get everything done, and since the car seat was a mess we had no where to put Alexis so I couldn't drive a car home. What a good husband!

The next thing that went out was our microwave. Michael had it about 3 years before we got married, and we've been married almost 3 years so its done its time. It was a little tiny dorm microwave too, which I've always been irritated with because it's hardly big enough for anything but a little plate. But, we didn't get one when we got married, so I've dealt with it. Seeing as how I really use my microwave everyday, multiple times a day, we ran to the store got one a bit bigger (so much nicer!). It still won't fit my stupid huge square plates (which I just had to have because they were so fab. Not even thinking about how I would fit them in a microwave.). I still love my plates, but they are pretty huge.


The next time something broke I was running to Coleman's to do some laminating. I had just gotten some awesome stuff that I'm going to use for my jungle thematic unit next year. So like a responsible teacher I was getting stuff done ahead of time, because once school starts it's going to be crazy. So Alexis was asleep and Michael was home, so I was trying to use my time wisely and get this done. I went in laminated and paid for my stuff, got in the Jeep, turned it on.....dead! COME ON! Are you kidding me??!! Both cars went dead on me exactly a week apart. On ME...Ugh, Michael never gets stranded. So, I called Michael who was also sleeping to come rescue me....again....he woke Alexis up, who was to say the least mad about it. They came to get me and we got it running again, just a battery...again... I hope nothing else breaks.


So the recap: Michael got a huge ego boost from having to rescue his wife twice in one week.
I got my survival skills shot down twice in one week because I had to have my husband come rescue me twice.
Alexis got carted around while sick, and had to wake up from a nap.
Two dead batteries, and one broken microwave.


After all of the messes last night we went to go see Dora the Explorer Live! We went with Grandma Judy, my sister-in-law Michelle, and my niece. We had so much fun. Alexis loved it!! I didn't know if she would really enjoy it or not because she's never seen an episode of Dora, but she seems to like all shows like this. She also stayed awake the whole thing, which I was worried a little about because we had night time tickets. But, she did stay awake, and both girls had a ball, and so did the adults! We weren't allowed to take pictures during the show, so all I have are the pics we took before we left for the show. Anyway, that is it! Hopefully I will have an uneventful rest of the week.

Vacation Pics Round 1!

This was the start of our trip mostly in the car & of Alexis!

The first 2 minutes in the car. Not a good sign of a good traveler.

Crossing the TN border! The first time out of state!!

The end of the trip. She was so mad at us! She wouldn't talk or play. She just sat there looking like this for about the last 100 miles. She was not a fan of waking up in her car seat. But, like Michael said it could have been worse!! :)

Finally arriving at Mawmaw & Pawpaw's

She's all good now. Clean, happy, and out of the car!

My Poor Finger

Three years ago Michael gave me a beautiful engagement ring and asked me to be his wife. I accepted, quickly slipped the beautiful diamonds over my finger ( I was so excited I didn't give him a chance to put the ring on me!) , and lived happily ever after, well three years after anyway :).


THEN

One day the finger that held all my pretty diamonds broke out in this awful rash with blueish dots, and a red rash. It itched like crazy for a few weeks. I went to the doctor, and she told me I was allergic to the white gold that my ring was made out of. :(...... So I went to the jeweler to see if there was anything I could do. They told me that I needed to wash the ring good, and coat the inside with clear fingernail polish. "It works 95% of the time) So...I did that...TWICE! (Even though I was weirded out by having to put nail polish on my ring!) Today I have realized that it's not working..... I still have that awful rash if I wear my rings for more than an hour or so. The jeweler said there was really nothing else that could be done, and sadly I think I'm going to have to get a new ring. In ugly yellow gold. Okay, there's nothing wrong with yellow gold, I just don't wear it at all. The problem is rings are expensive, especially to replace my engagement ring. So I may just have to get a cheap gold wedding band for now. We are going to talk to the jeweler again to make sure there's nothing else we can do.

We're Home!

We are back at home from our vacation to Florida! We had a fun filled week which included: going to Sea World two days, the mall (which is much more fab than ours!), to see my cousin and his two adorable kids, played outside, the local zoo, and just lots of visiting and resting. We stayed with my grandparents, and were met by my mom and dad, and brother and sister-in-law.

(We've actually been home since Sunday, but more on that later!)

Let's see, Sea World was great. Alexis loved everything!! She even got to go see a sesame street show which she loved. She liked looking at all of the animals, watching the shows, and hanging out with Grammy while Mommy and Daddy rode the three rides that Sea World offers that we wanted to ride. We rode Manta which was a new ride that just opened. You sit in the seat, get strapped in and then it lifts you up to where your feet are behind you, and you are laying on your tummy. Like a manta ray! We got pulled off two or three times for technical difficulties (all having to do with the stupid straps that hold you in), but we finally got to ride it (except dad. He got off because he's too claustrophobic, and they pulled us off an on too many times for him.) I loved it! I think I was the only one though, so no one would ride it again with me. Then we rode a nice roller coaster, lots of loops, and a water ride. Which dad got soaked on the first time. I got soaked on the second time :). Then of course we got to see the dolphins, killer whales, sea lions, we fed sting rays!, and lots of other sea creatures, and like I said Lex loved it all!!

Then we went to see my cousin. His kids are 5 and 2. Madison, the oldest, loved playing with Alexis, Jack...not so much. He was a little jealous, but they all got along pretty good, and Alexis liked having other kids to play with. We had a great visit.

We went to the mall, and bought nothing! Except a Tigger and Nemo stuffed animal for Alexis. I went back at the end of our trip (I wanted to make sure I had enough money for souvenirs!) And I got some stuff at bath and body works, and some big girl dishes from the Disney store for Alexis. Oh, and they also had summer stuff 75% off so I got a picnic basket that was originally $30 for 7 bucks! Can't pass up a sale. So yes, we had a fantastic trip (not to mention getting spoiled by my grandparents!).

Then the morning that we were going to leave Alexis woke up very very sick. Let's just say it was messy. We were going to drive straight through the night so that Alexis would sleep almost all the way home. (Worked great on the way down!) But, since she was so sick we wanted to get home so we left around 3 that afternoon. She got sick again around dinner time, and that stop took over an hour! But, once she got to sleep she slept all the way home. I think we had 10 miles left when she woke up the next morning. The next morning at about 2 we got the same virus Alexis had. Michael, got it much worse than I did, but Alexis by far got it the worst. From Saturday until Wednesday I went through one box of diapers (104 in the box), two tubs of wipes, a whole tube of Desitin, and my washer is still washing everything up. This virus was to say the least messy. It was so gross, and the sickest Alexis has ever been, but we made it! I'm happy to say that all three of us are healthy again, now I'm just working on cleaning up the house.


** Due to the sickness I will post pics later of our vacation!