Be careful for what you ask for

Why do I have the need to begin each post with "It has been a busy week ..." . It is always a busy week around here it seems. Is it that way in your homes or is it just me? I titled this "be careful for what you ask for". I have only myself to blame. When school started, I thought to myself, I hope I stay busy this year. Well, I can say that I have! With the kids in 3rd and 4th grades and the volunteer needs decline I was a little worried. Not anymore!! Between volunteering in both schools' libraries, my Bible Study, household stuff, sewing/monogramming... the list goes on.

You may remember we gave our snail "Darth" to some friends because they wouldn't stop laying eggs? Well Sunshine, the yellow one we kept, died. So we now have Blueberry:

And we learned that snails are technically both genders. Kind of gross to me. So unless you want more, only have one snail at a time!

Annamarye received her 3rd grade Bible at church. Sorry that it isn't a great picture. I tried to snap it quickly with my phone. I have this thing about taking pictures during church. It bugs me when people think of it as a photo shoot. I know people want pictures of their children being baptized, but some go overboard. Last week the family friends had 5 cameras all out taking pictures of a baby being baptized!! A little crazy to me!

Anyway, the afternoon after getting her Bible, we attended a Bible Workshop for the 3rd graders. It was a lot of fun. James got his last year. Johnny and I both still have our Bibles we got in 3rd grade.
Another thing that has kept me busy is both schools had "fun runs". I am very blessed and thankful that I am able to do and go to school events!! Sometimes it gets crazy, but I love it!
Here's Annamarye with some friends at their run!
Last Thursday was Parenting Day. I started out at Annamarye's class and went to lunch and then headed to James' class and lunch. Then I had to go back to Annamarye's school for my library duty. Anyway, here is James and his friend Ken. It was also pajama day for them. Why they would schedule pj day and Parenting Day the same day is crazy to me!
Friday night, James went with his friend Carter to Boo at the Zoo. They had a blast!! Can you tell?
Saturday night, Annamarye went to a Halloween/Birthday party. She is Fancy Nancy. Annamarye is so funny, she loves dressing up at home, putting on make-up, jewelry, etc.. But when it comes to dressing up for parties she isn't that into it.
Johnny went on Annamarye's field trip to DeSoto Caverns, but unfortunately the disc in the camera I gave him didn't work so I have no pictures. I will get some from her teacher and will post later. We have also been to the pumpkin patch, I just haven't had time to load the pictures! They will be coming soon!

Hodge Podge

I have started this post several times and just never had the time to finish. I am determined to finish this morning. I can't believe it is Thursday already! Since my last post lots has been going on here. Not that I ever really considered it, but there is no way I could ever be in real estate!! I am a very organized person and everything has been so rushed and always last minute with the sale of my Dad's house. We got a contract on it in August and they wanted to close by September 30. Great! We were excited. I got a call one day in September we were closing the following week so we had to rush and make sure all of the paperwork was done etc. I went to the bank one day 3 times in a matter of hours. Only to get the call the next morning we weren't closing then! Found out late in the day on September 29th we weren't closing by the 30th. Last Wednesday late afternoon found out we were closing on Monday afternoon. Thursday mid-day that was changed and we were closing the following day at 2:15! Crazy! I just couldn't deal with all of the uncertainty on a regular basis. As I have said before, I like just hum drum kind of days, routine, nothing dramatic. Anyway, we did close and it was a huge relief and burden off my shoulders!!

Praise God for the rescue of the miners in Chile! I have been glued to the TV the past couple of days watching the rescue! I am extremely claustrophobic and cannot imagine what they went through!! (my post says Tuesday, but it is actually Thursday. I told you I had started this post several times!)

Saturday my friend Jeanne called (they were traveling out of town) and said she needed a favor. This was the favor:

That is James crawling through their doggie door!! She had accidentally left some type of electronic device (I'm not sure what it was) in the charger and didn't want to leave it charging for 3 days. So, James went through the doggie door, opened the garage door and we went in and unplugged it.

The kids were out of school on Monday, so we packed a picnic lunch, loaded up the van, picked up Daniel and headed to the park. We met some friends there and had a fabulous day! The boys played football just about the entire time.
Annamarye and Hope played on the playground, did cheers, gymnastics, and twirled!

Wordless Wednesday

Alabama Football

Last Saturday after James' football game we headed to Tuscaloosa for the Bama game! We met up with Johnny's cousin, Pat and his wife Leslie. Here's the picture James took.

They both went to Auburn and are big Auburn fans. Here is their daughter, Shelby with Annamarye and James.

I'm not sure if they have completely converted, but it is a start!

This is Shelby's 2nd year on the flag team at Alabama. Last year we weren't able to meet up with her to get a picture. I was determined to get one this year.

All of the band members were super nice! Shelby asked if the kids wanted a picture with a large group of girls. One quick snap and the kids were surrounded!
They both loved it! In fact this morning on the way to school James was showing this picture to Matthew and Tucker and I heard him telling them he hit the "jackpot"!

Flag Football

James was a team captain this morning at his football game! Here he is on the field before the game for the coin toss. They played hard, but lost the game. The Cowboys are now 2-2.

It's Friday!!

Yea It's Friday!! Although where did the week go?

Last weekend Johnny went to see our friend Wes in Oklahoma. He flew up early Friday morning. With our Alabama ticket order we ordered two Arkansas tickets. Johnny and Wes went to the Bama - Arkansas game. It is about a 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive from Wes's house. Anyway, the kids were going to have spend the night company while he was gone. Because James got sick at school and several other things that just didn't happen like we planned. Annamarye did spend the night with her friend Hope. She was excited about that and they had a good time!

So Sunday afternoon, everyone was well and so the kids had friends over. The boys were going to play football in the wet and rainy yard but played inside and in the driveway instead. They did that one Sunday and loved it!

Hope and Annamarye made chocolate chip muffins.

Tuesday I took some chicken out of the freezer with no plans as to what I was going to do with it. After thinking for a while, I decided it had been a long time since we have had chicken and dumplings! So that is what we made!

James helped some with the dumplings, but he was in charge of the rolls. It turned out great, but neither one of them would eat the dumplings! They love the chicken though!

We did a lot of cooking and eating this week! These are cookies I made for James' class as a special treat for Thursday. The school had their fun run that morning.

I helped mark t-shirts during their run - the Zoomathon! It is really a lot of fun and the kids have a blast!

Ok that's it for this quick update. Have a great weekend and Roll Tide!