Family Adventures Family Adventures When my children are grown and gone, I hope that they will look back on their childhood and remember the sound of their mother's laughter. Sometimes that is easier said than done. Articles
Happy Anniversary
2007-11-14 04:13:00 I had a lot of fun reminiscing about Italy yesterday. Today our seventh anniversary, Jeff and mine. Jeff took the day off from work and then when Mandy got home from school we went out on a date. It was a lot of fun. We even went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We strolled through town. Browsed the antique shops, the art shops, the toy store. We love it here. We go out on a date every year for our anniversary, we usually talk about our dream home, this year, we own our dream home.Anniversary story year 6Anniversary Story year 5I am married to a man who is honest, not in the...you look fat in those pants...way but in the...does what he says he will do, is where he says he will be, never hide things...kind of way.I am married to a man with integrity. He would rather do the right thing, than do the thing that would be in his own best interest.I am married to a man who loves me and our girls. He shows it every day, in every way.A month ago Jeff saw through a store window t... More About: Family , Happy , Happy Anniversary
In fair Verona
2007-11-12 18:55:00 Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona , where we lay our scene-William Shakespeare from Romeo & JulietOne of my favorite trips was to Verona. We were only there for an afternoon, still it has been with me ever since. Maybe because we got some great artwork and I look upon the scenes from Verona every morning. Maybe because this city is the setting for Romeo and Juliet. Whatever the reason, Verona is my favorite city in all of Italy, maybe in all the world.This trip was one of the first trips I took with Jeff after we got married. One of my very first adventures. Jeff, Mandy and I drove from our home in Pordenone to Verona. I think the drive was two or three hours, not far. We arrived in the down town section, the older section of town and found a place to park our car. We then found a newspaper stand and bought a book about Verona. The thing about Europe that makes travel so easy is that they take care of the tourists, the bumbling Americans who have no ... More About: Fair , Adventures
Eatin' Well
2007-11-12 05:00:00 Jeff, Mandy & Chad went to The University of Southern Mississippi to see a football game. This was Jeff & Mandy's second time going there to see a game. They had a blast. Jeff took pictures and complains that I do not post stories of the things he and Mandy do or post the pictures he takes on my blog. He thinks this blog belongs to our family and I am just the gatekeeper. Now I understand why others don't tell their husbands about their blogs. It always surprises me when Jeff reads my blog and has a differing recollection of events.After the game, driving home, Jeff and Chad decided that they wanted The Shed for dinner. Mandy does not like bbq at all and took a pass. She offered to take care of Lily so I could go to out to dinner with the boys. How sweet is that?They didn't get back until almost 9PM. We went straight to The Shed and had the most fabulous bbq in the world. There was a live band and a bon fire, the temperature was perfect. We had a great time. B... More About: Daily , Well
Eight Things
2007-11-11 02:36:00 My new blogging buddy Marion, a fellow blog villager tagged me some time ago for a meme. Marion's blog Herbal Connection is wonderful. She is such a wonderful writer. An ordinary trip to the story is told with so much personality that I feel such a connection to Marion. All those things that run through our heads as we lead our life, she has a magical way of capturing life, that makes me feel like saying, yes-that is just what I think. I strongly recommend that you add Marion to your daily read. Sorry it has taken me so long to do this meme. I am supposed to tell you eight things not generally known about me....I have zero grace. I am incredibly envious of people who have grace. I just bumble through things, always in a hurry, always efficient, never graceful. I took ballet as a little girl, I can only imagine what that looked like. I still have bruises on my legs from bumping into things.I have a brown thumb. I buy plants, I plant things, they all die. I want to be a ga... More About: Meme , Things
Are you sure?
2007-11-09 15:31:00 My luck is changing, everything is coming up roses for a change. Knock wood.Here is a fun story. I may have told it before, forgive me and my addled brain if you have read this before...October 2004. We are in Hawaii. Everyone in the family got to do a couple of things that they really wanted to do. Mandy got to swim with dolphins and ride out in a boat into the ocean and see hundreds of dolphins frolicking in the surf. I got to go for sunset walks along the beach, boogie boarding, and an afternoon sunbathing on a lovely beach. All Jeff wanted was to hike to the top of Diamond Head Mountain. On our way there, we got into a heated discussion about which way to go. Jeff had been there before, he thought he saw something on a sign, I was reading a map, he wouldn't listen to me. I wouldn't listen to him. It got ugly. For some reason my sweet easy going Jeff turns into a monster when he is behind the wheel. I just hate that. I feel like he is not trusting me. I think that... More About: Adventures
one of those weeks
2007-11-08 14:46:00 Poor Little Miss Lily is still sick. What a week. She really hates the diarrhea, she cries, and says, Mommy help me. She doesn't want to let it out. It is traumatic. We get it all done and I comfort her. Poor thing. She is quite upset that she is unable to will herself better.I had Jeff go around the hospital, where he works, and ask all his doctor friends for advice. Like is there a medicine that I can give her? Or am I doing the right things? When is it time to take her to the doctor? Each doctor, each nurse, had completely different advice. Very frustrating. Some say no milk, some say yes milk. Some say give her medicine, some say no medicine use clotting foods. They give me a list of foods and drinks to give her and none of those things are things Lily eats.I am proud of the fact that Lily is not dehydrated and she doesn't have a rash. The germy house is being kept hospital sterile. Mandy hasn't gotten sick.My Lily is such a energetic little girl, it is hard ... More About: Weeks
Picasa
2007-11-08 03:18:00 This posting everyday thing is rough. How y'all doing? Today I thought I would tell you about Pica sa web albums.If you have a blogger blog you are going to love this. The photos that you have uploaded to your new blogger blog are all stored over in a web album at this site. You can even go there and upload whole folders of photos all at once, instead of one photo at a time. Once uploaded you are able to post those photos to your blog with the click of a button, you can post them as a slide show, post them as an album or post them one at a time. It is very easy to use and convenient. You are also able to download the program Picasa to your computer. This program organizes your photos and enables you do to some simple photo retouching and a whole lot more. Best of all it is all free. I personally do not like Picasa because I use photoshop and because I have a really slow computer. Picasa is always running in the background making my computer even slower. But, if you do not... More About: Blogging , Icas
Mama don't work
2007-11-07 04:10:00 Last night as I felt the cold coming on, Lily woke up feeling poorly. I had to stay up for a couple of hours and help her with the squishy poopy and overall feeling poorly. As I was rocking her back to sleep I was flicking through the channels on the TV. Not yet ready to put Lily back to bed. Holding her tight, worried, and incredibly tired myself. I came upon a young woman, a TV anchor who was voicing her opinion on mothers. This young woman, said something to the effect that while she herself was not yet a mother, the moms she sees who look at their children as work instead of as gifts disgust her. This woman feels that caring for her future children will be the greatest joy of her life. It ain't rainbows coming out of my sick babies butt. Maybe it is because I am bone weary. My husband took a day off work to sleep when he got this crud, me I had to stay up all night and all day cleaning stinky poopy and stinky puke. Anyways, this attitude that what we do isn't work. Of... More About: Work , Mama
Everyone is sick
2007-11-05 19:46:00 Even my laptop. The cord that plugs into the wall and re-charges the battery broke. Mandy didn't tell me until the computer went dead. I ordered something on the Internet, hope it is the right thing. Jeff came home from work sick. Lily is sick. Mandy and I are sick with sadness about the computer. At least I have old Betsy the desktop. I spent the morning trying to load all the programs I need to do my homework assignment. Now I am sorta doing my assignment.The lady with the furniture called, she is supposed to have movers there today. We shall see. She said they were going to come last week but she forgot she didn't have a key. I think she is mental. She offered to come to my house and pick up the key so I wouldn't have to wait for the movers. I (hopefully) politely declined. However, with the homework and sickies, this is not going to be a fun day. Hope your day is going better.I am however, learning JavaScript. Maybe I will learn how to do something cool. See ... More About: Daily , Sick
Where are all the travel stories?
2007-11-04 23:12:00 I promised you all stories from my travels. I have not been able to put something together in my head. They all go something like this, we went to ___ we looked around and we left. Jeff and Lily are coming down with colds. Just a little bit, nothing serious so far. Still they are needing some tlc. I have been resting up after all that work and eating yesterday. Reading romance novels and napping instead of doing homework.I have been waking up at about 2AM lately. Doing a bit of homework and going back to bed. How weird. Hope I wake up tonight because I seriously need to get it done by midnight tomorrow. Hope your weekend is great.I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Daily , Travel , Stories
A Watch in the Garage
2007-11-04 01:17:00 First thing after breakfast today we cleaned the garage. Our Chad is coming next week. Jeff was sure that cleaning our garage would take 2 hours tops. It took about 10. We didn't even stop for lunch. Our Chad will be living in our garage off and on for the next six months. We are attempting to make it nice for him. He is taking a leave of absence from his construction business to come and build homes for people who are in need. We have a whole lot of need here in Mississippi. He is doing all this with his church and we are offering him a place to come and get away from it all and regroup when he needs it.Mandy had to work today from 4pm-10pm. I woke her up at 1PM today and asked her if she would like to go out to dinner with us, before she had to go to work. She said she would rather sleep. Jeff, Lily and I planned on going out to dinner after we dropped Mandy off at work, Mandy was distraught that we would be going out to dinner while she was hard at work. She was sle... More About: Garage , Watch , Daily , The G
The best laid plans
2007-11-02 11:54:00 Jeff and I recently agreed to become property managers for a friend who owns a house locally and lives far away. He was unable to sell his home in the current market and we are taking care of trying to find a renter. Turns out I have actually been doing all the work. It has actually been a lot of fun. I get dozens of phone calls a day, I have shown the house a few times, no renters yet.There have been all kinds of drama. Being involved in other people's lives so intimately. We have the previous renters who got divorced and sold their furniture to a local lady. This lady keeps putting off getting her furniture out of the house. She is a sweet little old lady who gives you a real good sob story and show, but the furniture, she bought it 6 months ago and still hasn't picked it up. Jeff and I flip coins over who has to call her next. While the house was on the market, the real estate agent was unable to get her to pick up the furniture. It seems that she bought this really ... More About: Family , Daily , Plans
A night to remember
2007-11-01 12:32:00 I was able to get Lily to take a nap. Things were going quite well. We walked out our front door at exactly 6:00PM, our community trick or treats from 6-8PM. No one was about. I live on a street with dozens of children, I saw none. I saw the neighbor across the street getting into his car and asked him if his (four kids) were going trick or treating and he told what was going on. My neighborhood has no street lights or sidewalks, so most of the people take their kids downtown. We have a quaint little downtown area that is quite often used for festivals etc. The area was blocked off to traffic and all the store owners decorate the street and hand out candy. It was packed with people. There was a live band. There is always a live band in Mississippi, Mandy says that her school cafeteria has a live band on Fridays. As it became dark, the street filled to capacity. People of all ages dressed in adorable costumes. It was a lot of fun.As we were pulling up to our parking spa... More About: Family , Night
Happy Halloween
2007-10-31 14:46:00 Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I like the way the neighborhood comes out together, it is a night of neighborly love. I have high hopes for meeting neighbors and having a lot of fun. I am busy working on getting Lily worn out enough to take a nap today. She really doesn't do naps well anymore, but then she has grouchy evenings. Hopefully a very busy active day will wear her down enough to take an afternoon nap and then be extra perky for a night of fun.I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Daily , Happy , Halloween , Allo
New Pants
2007-10-28 18:01:00 The weather here has been on the chilly side this past week. We have had to unpack our long pants. Turns out that Lily grew quite a bit in the 7 months we have been here. Like about a foot. Her pants are up to her knees. I hadn't noticed. Wish we could wear shorts all year long, save money.I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Daily , Pants
hair
2007-10-27 20:50:00 hair Originally uploaded by marshamlow Thanks for the nice comments about our hair. Funny story: Often people ask us, where did Lily get her hair color? Looking at Jeff's dark brown hair and my dark blond/light brown hair and Lily's white blond hair. Jeff always answers politely with information about our genealogy and I always have a smart remark. I usually say, "the milk man." I think this is a little embarrassing to Jeff, but isn't it sort of an implication of my infidelity to ask such a question in the first place? I always think rude question, rude answer. PS, Angel- I have to blow dry my hair too. Or it looks horrid, see slide show of fall muster below. Not so much to straighten but to add a bit of volumn.I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Hair
The Why Girl
2007-10-27 15:50:00 Here are some recent shots of the girl who asks, why? Why can't I play in the street? Why can't we take the dog to the store? Why is it Saturday? Why, why, why - all day long. And one of my new haircut. Have a good weekend.I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Daily , Girl
Fall Muster
2007-10-26 15:34:00 Over this past weekend we went to our first Fall Muster. The paper said it was between 9AM and 5:30PM. It worked out best for us to go first thing in the morning, and at 8AM we were all buckled into our car and driving down the road. We arrived right at 9AM ready to see a Civil War re-enactment. We were excited to see things get blown up. We had read that they had added several cannons to the battle.However, we were soon to discover that the battle did not occur from 9-5. In fact there was nothing going on at 9AM. No food being sold, no battles being fought... It turns out that during the Fall Muster, a bunch of people (more than 100) get together. They dress in Civil War period costumes. Men, women, and children; they all spend the weekend out at the re-enactment site. They spend the night, they re-enact a weekend in the life of the soliders who fought in the civil war. It is not just the battles. They slept under white canvas tents, they were cooking breakfast over an ... More About: Adventures
Thursday Thirteen # 11
2007-10-25 16:21:00 I have been trying to lose weight for 20 years, every year I seem to gain about 5 lbs over the course of the year instead of losing. Except this last year, I remained the same, and the year before I lost 15 lbs. I have tried many different diets (only free ones). Read many diet books (from the library). I feel like I should be a weight loss expert by now, except for the fact that I still need to lose weight. Here are some of the things I have learned...If I remove treats from my day to day life, I need to replace them with some other type of reward or I feel punished. Books, magazines, shopping, calling a friend, I have tried a lot of things, but it is hard to find something to replace afternoon cookies.If I give up sugar, flour, potato, and white rice for two weeks - I no longer have any hunger pains or cravings, ever. But those two weeks - require a padded room.I hate breakfast, gagging it down sucks, all the skinny people I know in my real life do not eat breakfast.I have... More About: Thirteen , Thursday
One Sweet Treat to Read
2007-10-24 16:27:00 Lynn from A Tired Mama has given me this awesome award. It is so cute. I can't wait to pass it on. This award was created by the obviously creative and talented Trista from the blog The Pumpkin Patch, she wants all of us to pass this award on to our favorite readers. All of my readers hold a special place in my heart, I have decided to pass this award on to the following people because of how much they have given to me and in hopes of brightening their day.Mrs. Grumpy: AKA Laura is my newest blogging buddy. Laura's writing is phenomenal and everyday she helps me to realize what is important in my life and where my focus should be. Laura recently and unexpectedly lost her beloved husband Leonard and she is sharing herself so completely as she bravely faces one challenge after another. Laura is simply the kindest and bravest person there is. She doesn't quite know that about herself but all her readers, we know it. For Laura, when you next see your husband, remember how much you lo... More About: Blogging , Sweet , Read , Treat
sticky fingers
2007-10-20 15:43:00 Lily and I have just been so busy lately. Nothing really exciting to say about it all. We go here and there, we have fun everywhere. She has been spectacularly well behaved lately. Except when she is over tired or hungry. Other than the WHY phase we are going through, she is going through the make-believe phase. The make-believe phase is my favorite! We play school, house, have tea parties, take trips to the moon, it is so much more fun than doing puzzles and building things with blocks. In order to keep peace and harmony in our home, Lily and I play together everyday for a couple of hours in the morning. She usually picks what we do, except that I buy a lot of educational crap and try to convince her that doing those things would be so much fun. Like, workbooks, I call them game books and we go through our game books learning our numbers and letters. That is what I mean when I say Lily is obsessed with something, I mean that everyday for ages she will choose to do the sa... More About: Daily , Fingers , Icky , Tick
Why I'll Never Be a RockStar
2007-10-18 14:46:00 We were having a terribly busy but fun day. I had been running around since 7AM. Right after putting the chicken in the oven I remember a few things I really needed at the store, I left Mandy in charge of the oven and Lily and I buzzed up to the store for a quick pick up. Just as I pulled into the parking lot a really great song came on the radio. As I turned off the car, in the middle of the song, I had an overwhelming desire to finish the song. I hummed it softly under my breath. But, the diva in me took over and I began to really belt out a couple of lines. I put my all into the song, I sang with feeling, with flavor. I really love to sing. I was really having a good day. Very busy, but things were going well, I was getting things done, no snags. The song just errupted out of me like a volcano. Lily: Mom, what are you doing?Me: Singing.Lily: Can you stop it, please.The thing is that I love to sing. I sing along with the radio. I sing that song in my head. I sing... More About: Daily , Rockstar
What Kind of Reader Are You?
2007-10-18 12:44:00 I got this one from Katya:What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Literate Good Citizen You read to inform or entertain yourself, but you're not nerdy about it. You've read most major classics (in school) and you have a favorite genre or two.Dedicated Reader Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm Book Snob Fad Reader Non-Reader What Kind of Reader Are You?Create Your Own QuizI follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Reading
Get Over It
2007-10-17 16:17:00 This morning Mandy sent me a text message from school. It seems that she forgot to bring the receipt showing she had paid to take the PSAT test and they would not allow her to take the test without the receipt. I called her to ask if I could bring her the receipt or if it was too late. It was too late. She was beside herself, ready to cry. I actually cried, but I waited until we were done talking. She had paid for this test with her own money, money that she had worked very hard to earn. She is also not such a hot test taker and she has been working very hard at practicing for this test, and she really understands how important taking this test is in regard to her college future. She was just devastated.At that moment I didn't really think it was necessary for me to get mad at her or tell her all the things she already knew. I thought it was important to tell her: there is nothing more she can do about it, she needs to let it go, she needs to get over it. We will figure ... More About: Daily , Over It
An Award for the Spirit of Christmas
2007-10-15 17:43:00 The dear and sweet Lynn from A Tired Mama has given me An Award For The Spirit of Christmas and I am passing this award on to: Shelia, Marion, Luckzmom, Katya, and Natalie.To pick up your award go to Santa's Community Blog: The Spirit of Christmas AwardThe award is given to bloggers who have the spirit of Christmas, that is to say that they show kindness toward others. If you know of a blogger who has this type of spirit, why not stop on by Santa's blog and pick up this award and pass it on to one of your blogging buddies.Did I ever tell you that Christmas is celebrated in Japan? Santa, trees, decorations and presents -none of the Christ aspect. It bothers me more than I can say when people say that you cannot celebrate Christmas without Christ. I say that Christmas is about kindness, love, sharing, and the joy of giving.I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Meme
Are Your Buns Warm and Buttery?
2007-10-15 15:36:00 The first time I met Jeff's family was shortly after we were married. Jeff has two sisters and a brother, they are all married with kids and this makes for a big family. A big loud family. When we got into town we immediately hooked up with Jeff's older sister and her husband at a restaurant for lunch. It was one of those steak restaurants with a salad bar and the all you can eat, 'hot and buttery buns' on the table. Jeff was so happy, 'hot and buttery buns' are his thing.Later, we met up with Jeff's older brother, his older brother's family, and his younger sister, and her family; at another restaurant for dinner. This restaurant was a buffet that came with an unlimited supply of 'hot and buttery buns' brought to your table. Jeff was so happy. We all had a lovely evening.Let me back up here for a minute. Jeff was stationed in Italy, he had not been home or seen his family in a couple of years. So they were not only meeting me, his new wife, and Mandy his new dau... More About: Memories
The Martians are Coming
2007-10-14 15:57:00 I believe that Lily has conspired with Martians to such my brain out my ear. Here is an example of a typical conversation between Lily and I.Lily:What does WHY start with?Mommy:The word WHY starts with the letter W. The word WHY is spelled W-H-Y. Can you spell the word WHY?Lily:W-H-Y. What does WHY start with?Mommy:WHY starts with W. There is a word WHY and a letter Y. The word WHY starts with W and ends with Y.Lily:What does WHY start with?Mommy:I already told you what WHY starts with, what does WHY start with?Lily:WHY starts with W, Why does WHY start with W?Mommy:WHY is a word which is spelled W-H-Y, therefore it starts with W. Just like the word YOU starts with Y, the word YOU is spelled Y-O-U. Can you spell the word YOU?Lily:Y-O-U, what does WHY start withMommy:WHY starts with W.Lily:Why does WHY start with W?....This conversation circled for about an hour. No matter how hard I tried I could not get her to stop asking me what WHY starts with and why does WHY start with... More About: Daily
Dancing Lady
2007-10-14 00:01:00 Sorry I have been away so long. I have been so busy. Mostly with school work. I am trying to figure out how to write a script to make a questionnaire, it will ask you your opinions on the upcoming election and then tell you which of the candidates most closely reflects your thinking. Sounds easy right. Well, I don't know as much about computer programming as I think I do. The biggest problem is that my teacher wants us to use a PERL script and I haven't taking a PERL programming class yet. I could write a java program to do the programming bit, but I don't know how to get java on a web page. I am a wicked good java programmer, or at least the first two semesters of java, I still have three to go. I guess the problem is I bit off more than I can chew. So now I am retracing my steps and simply doing the bare minimum that the teacher asks us to do. How boring is that? I am going to ask people which of the candidates they are planning to vote for, a simple poll. I will g... More About: Dancing , Blogging , Lady
NaBloPoMo
2007-10-08 16:36:00 Did you happen to see the little widget on the bottom of the left column of my blog? November is National Blog Posting Month. Post every day for the month of November. That's all you have to do. Last year I did not join in on the fun, but many of my favorite bloggers did, and this year I am going to give it a try as well. Last year there were more than 2000 participants and this year there are 947 people already signed up. It is a great way to meet new bloggers and have a lot of fun. Plus, there are prizes.You can read more about it here at Fussy.org. Or go directly to the NaBloPoMo.com to sign up.And don't forget to add me as your friend!How to find something interesting to say everyday for an entire month is quite a challenge. Some ideas that others have had is to attempt to write that book, just wing it, research a topic you are interested in learning more about and post your findings, photos count, video counts...I am going to try to take this opportunity to write more a... More About: Blogging
An accomplishment
More articles from this author:2007-10-07 23:43:00 I have been diagnosed with Anemia, I have had it before, but after taking the iron for a few days I am feeling my old self again. I am in good spirits and actually accomplishing things around the house.About a month ago, or longer, Jeff and I bought some paint. We need to paint our house, should have had the previous owners do it. I was just so excited to get this house and Jeff refused to budge on price, I negotiated down the things they needed to do before we moved in. I got my house and a butt load of work. So today I painted the post that the mailbox sits on. I scrubbed the mail box clean and I planted 20 baby spider plants around the base of the mailbox pole. Lily helped me. We ended up getting paint all over Lily. I rushed her into the house to get her washed before it dried in her hair.She ran her paint smeared fingers through...my new curtains, the walls, her eyes, her hair, the couch. She also painted the little reflective disks on the side of the mailbox and the l... More About: Daily 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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