Definitely not a spend thrift!

He was thrilled with his new bike!

Collin finally decided it was time to spend his birthday money. His birthday was on February 23rd. He is our saver. He has been waiting and waiting to find the perfect bike. We have probably been to the store a half dozen times and we really thought he needed a 20 inch bike. However, every time he tried them out we saw that the bike was not going to last him very long. So on Monday night I told him to try out Austin's bike. We lowered the seat and it was a perfect fit. Now to find the same bike! Toys R Us here we come. Lucky for us we found the exact bike but in blue. Perfect! No getting confused on whose bike is whose. So here is Collin with his birthday present!

Being silly!

How we spent our Memorial Day Weekend

Mitchell surprised me for Mother's Day and our Anniversary with a hardwood laminate floor. We searched and searched to find the perfect color and finally found it at Lowes. Well much to our surprise someone suggested we try Sam's Club. Sure enough we found the perfect color (even better than Lowe's) and for half of the price. Our weekend went extremely smoothly considering house projects usually have a glitch here and there. We started on Friday afternoon around 2 and worked until 10:30. Saturday was our HUGE day. Mitchell worked so hard from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 a.m. He did a GREAT job and I am so very pleased with how everything turned out. Thanks for all of your hard work Mitchell!!!

Here are some before and after pictures so you can see the transformation.

Hope and her new friend

Hope was playing in the backyard last night and discovered a new friend. Mitchell taught her how to pick him up and she had a great time playing with him. He only got dropped on his head a couple of times but he seemed to recouperate quickly. It's so funny how she can be such a girly girly and yet play with frogs.

I tag the entire internet.

My wife guilted me into this so here goes. These are 8 facts you have been dying to find out about me.

1. I hate the smell of bananas.
2. I would rather smell poop than potpourri.
3. My dream job would be a short order cook at a Coney Island.
4. I love music but I cannot tell one note from another which if I have been behind you in church you already know this.
5. I kicked Tina out of the kitchen about 10 years ago (not because she can't cook but because she was cooking and I couldn't).
6. Dessert is a four letter word.
7. Potato is the only vegetable that I eat.
8. Since I started running I have run 2,720 miles. That is from New York to Los Angeles.

Tagged!

Thanks to my niece Nicole and my friend Elizabeth who felt the need to tag me here is my list of 8 things you have always wanted to know about me. I'm sure the suspense has been killing you so here goes.

1. My parents were originally going to name me JoAnn.
2. I do not know how to swim and it is way too late to try and teach me. However, I made sure ALL of my kids know how to swim.
3. I completely and thoroughly enjoy crossing things off my "to do" list. I enjoy it so much that if I forgot to write something down I will write it down just so I can cross it off. Ok I am a little bit OCD.
4. When I was little I bit the foot off of my Barbie doll and blamed it on my cat.
5. I cannot go to bed with the house in disarray. Back to my OCD.
6. I've known Mitchell for more than half of my life. We met through a guy that I used to date. It's funny because I have basketball pictures from high school when we (Temple) played Inter-City and Mitchell is in them.
7. My parents are deaf but I do not know sign language. However, I can read lips which can come in handy during sporting events.
8. When I was little I always wanted to be a mom.

Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Today is my parent's 40th wedding anniversary. We got to celebrate with them on Friday and had a great time. I was so tickled that I got to surprise my parents with a picture frame. I loved it because there was a spot for "then" - a picture from their wedding day and "now" a picture from Christmas. Happy Anniversary! We love you!!!

I've never been 'shrooming before

I have been told that going mushrooming is really fun, but it can be hard to find the little buggers. I now know that both of these statements are completely FALSE. 10:45am I received a call from Tina wondering what is this strange thing in the basement. Of course I am at work so I have no idea what she is talking about. Thankfully we live in the digital age (and we have a Mac,) so she can send me a photo of the fungus among us. She was a wee bit upset about the intruders, but after 15 years of marriage I am able to defuse this type of situations. (May 16th was our wedding- Mitchell & Tina 1992 = MITTIN92 do you get it? huh do ya?) When I got home the real fun began.
rip out the moldings - check
pull back the carpet - check
cut out the padding, - check
tear out the drywall - check
look for the leak - ?????
Where is the leak? The carpet is wet. The pad is soaked. Even the bottom 1/3 of the drywall is damp. I expected to see signs of water coming down the wall, but I saw nothing. I am sure that is where it came from, so we will just have to watch during the next few hard rains.

Do not think that this is normal for me but I never felt totally overwhelmed (even though home handy man jobs are not my forte.) I had a strange sense of peace that can only come from the Lord. A line from Facing the Giants (a must see movie) keeps coming back to me. "Praise God when we win. Praise God when we lose." Bottom line is this is a minor set back. God is good, and I get to praise HIM.

I'm not sure, are these the kind that you sauté with a porterhouse steak?

When Tina first saw these babies, she thought they were rotten potatoe chips the kids had set along the bottom of the tv stand.

Here is the damage cause by the water.

Catching up!

I'm trying to catch up since obviously I haven't been blogging in a while. Before we went to Florida we celebrated Hope's 7th birthday. She had a great birthday. She got a bike from my family with her favorite theme butterflies. She was finally able to buy her pink ds from money that she received from the Tallys and we got her some new games. Lots of fun. I can't believe my baby is 7.

Florida in pictures

Here are some of the highlights to recap our fun trip to Florida. I can't believe it has already been a month since we went. I had a hard time picking favorite pictures because we took WAY too many.

We loved petting and feeding the dolphins at Sea World.

Austin shouldn't have messed with Darth Vader!

Fun on the tea cup ride!

What brotherly love!

Great times in the pool! Check out her cool Minnie Mouse tattoo.

I just love these pictures. The sky just looked so pretty and the castle in the background.

Epcot had their garden festival and so many pretty topiaries.

Fun with Hope

Don't mess with Hope!

Nostalgia!

I was recently thinking about how much time has flown by and was inspired to put my thoughts down on paper so here goes.

It has been 36 years since I was born.

20 years ago I got my driver's license.

19 years ago I graduated from high school. 20 years ago that Mitchell graduated.

18 years ago I met Mitchell.

16 years ago I graduated from college.

Almost (May 16th) 15 years since we got married.

13 years ago that I got pregnant.

12 1/2 years ago I had my first baby.

12 years ago we built our home.

9 years ago we had Collin.

8 years ago Collin had his kidney surgery.

7 years ago we had Hope. Our last baby :-(

4 years ago Hope burned her hand.

3 years ago we bought our first Apple (This one's for Mitchell) Since then we have converted many! We brought them over from the dark side and they now see the light!

2 years ago Collin (majorly) broke his arm and had surgery.

YIKES! Where has the time gone? How can something that happened so long ago also feel like it was just yesterday. I am so thankful for all of these wonderful memories and I am so looking forward to the many more to come.