Why is it?
I have a week off and we have doctors visits planned for every day except today. Yesterday, the kids went for their yearly checkup. No shots! Can I get a woo-hoo? Tomorrow the husband and I get our annual skin cancer check. Thursday, Jake has an orthodontist appointment and then we’ll go straight to the eye doctor for checkups for all and hopefully some contact samples for Jake to try out. Then, on Friday I have my hair appointment. So, this is the only days for me to get other things done. I planned on getting the oil changed in my car and taking Jake to Wal-Mart to spend some of his money. Instead, I click the DVR button on my remote and watch last week’s Bizarre Foods episode. Then, I remember that I have Flowers in the Attic saved as well, so I watch that. In the meantime, I finish reading all of Jorge Garcia’s blog and determine taht I like him so much more than I ever did before. He is a very funny man! Then, I see that The Wiz has just started, so I watch that too. Now, it’s almost 2pm and Jake & I are still in our jammies and Bailey & Reece are playing in the backyard. I still have no intention of getting off my couch any time soon. And that’s ok!
Compassion revisited
I want to let you know that you will be matched with one of the children that Ree and her husband are sponsoring financially. You should receive your correspondent packet within the next few weeks with all of the information you need to get started.
My son, the scholar
Jake was inducted into the Jr Beta Club last week. Go Jake!
Here is the whole group of 6th graders who got into the club.
Jake with his best friends:
Jake & Zane
Jake & Ahmed
Jake & John
My lovely weekend
Yes, I know it was 27 degrees at times, but my weekend was wonderful because my very best friend, Lesley and her little boy, Giovanni, came in town for 3 days. We packed a lot into those three days!
First, I took off work on Friday and we went to The Flying Biscuit, my very favorite breakfast spot. I had my favorite- eggs on top of love cakes (black bean corn cakes) smothered in tomatillo sauce, sour cream and feta cheese, with a side of grits and flying biscuits with cranberry apple butter of course.
Lesley had her first fried green tomatoes, which were covered with goat cheese-yum! G had oatmeal pancakes which had a very strange texture from the oatmeal, but were totally addicting!
Here is G in the restaurant.
Then, we headed over to Perimeter mall. I haven’t been there in ages- it is so nice. I was pretty peeved that they don’t have a Hollister. I mean, really. Who the heck doesn’t have a Hollister?? That was the main reason for me going to the mall- Christmas presents of Hollister t-shirts (on sale of course) for Jake. But, finding my new favorite store, Anthropologie, made it all worth while. I’ve decided that if I ever win the lottery, I’m just going to buy the whole store.
After that, we head home to take the kids to their birthday dinner- Japanese steakhouse, of course. Bailey turned 9 on the 13th and Jake turned 12 on Monday. The kids had fun with the warm hand towels.
…about Dave’s head…I’ll just leave you with “stupid human trick” and you can use your own imagination…
This was Giovanni’s first time at a hibachi and I was kind of concerned. I shouldn’t have been- he had a blast! This was the look on his face the whole night.
Our hibachi chef was quite funny. He even posed for me!
I also had the best drink I’ve ever had. Seriously. You know how much I love lychees. They are absolutely my favorite thing. My favorite fruit, my favorite drink (which I can only find at the Asian market), my favorite candy (again- Asian market only) my favorite flavor of all time. Well, new to America is Soho Lychee Liquor. Yee haw! They made a drink there with it and it was just lychee yumminess. Next time I go, I’m making them give me the recipe. Here is the loveliness which is my new favorite beverage.
After that, we headed over to my mom and dad’s house to drop Jake off to spend the night. They brought out their bin of ooooold McDonald’s toys and we all had fun. I think Lesley and I had more fun than the kids!
The next day we headed out to Stone Mountain Christmas. Lesley just couldn’t get over how amazing Stone Mountain was!
It is pretty darn cool!
Here are my goofballs.
This would have been a cool Christmas card, had Jake not made a silly face.
After walking around the Christmas village for a little bit, we decide to go up the mountain on one of these.
Jake keeps telling me he doesn’t want to go up and can’t understand why he can’t just wait in the car. LOL By the time we get in line, he is hysterical- he is sobbing, hitting me and calling me an idiot. Um, yeah. My response? Suck it up, be a man, you.are.going.on.the.skytram. Here he is halfway up the mountain.
We made it to the top!
There is nothing like a sunset on top of a mountain!
Jake LOVED running around the top- it looks like the surface of the moon.
So, we’re ready to ride down and somehow, Jake talks Lesley into hiking down with him while Bailey and I take G town on the Skytram. Great idea, right? Sure, the hike wasn’t bad. But, the fact that it took them around the other side of the park and they had to walk miles back to the Christmas Village was just not in the plans. So, an hour later, with wobbly legs, they finally find us!
And then my camera dies…
If you have kids and you haven’t gone to Stone Mountain Christmas yet, I recommend it. The village is adorable, the Christmas Train ride was great, unfortunately we didn’t get to see the 4-D Polar Express, but we’ll get that next time. The best part was the Snow Angel show at the end- fireworks, snow (soap suds) falling from the sky and a real flying Snow Angel- she was actually flying above us- held up by wires. It was very cool!
The next day, they went home and I cried, as always.
Happy Birthday Mandi!
Mandi just turned 30. Last year, the sisterchicks all went on a cruise for our 30th birthdays. Since Mandi’s a little younger, we had to do a birthday bash, sisterchick style. First, Staci, brought her to the destination blindfolded!
We took her to dinner at Bahama Breeze! Get it? Just like our cruise last year to the Bahamas! As you can see, we’re missing Mandy, whose dh had to work at the last minute. 
After a scrumptious dinner, we headed out for another surprise. We went to the Atlanta Cupcake Factory, whose website was just a tad bit misleading. It was basically a hole in the wall with no place to sit!
Disclaimer- here are my two favorite single gals, Staci & Kristen. If you are a God-lovin, mature man, go ahead and check out their blogs! They’re both beautiful inside and out and would be a prize for any man!
Back to the hole in the wall… they did have lovely cupcakes!
The man working there brought out fresh ones for our little partay.
Here we are with our baked goodies. You can see Amanda’s little bundle of joy, Asa, in the bottom left. He was such a good baby!
So, we headed back into my van and asked Magellan to take us to the nearest Starbucks. Luckily it was only 0.3 miles away. Don’t these cupcakes look delicious? Here are the flavors we chose: Pumpkin Latte, White Chocolate Cranberry, Double Chocolate, Sugar Cookie Nutella, Gingerbread Lemon, Chocolate Almond, and Caramel Apple.
This is what the box looked like when we were done.
Here are some other pics I just couldn’t leave out.
Here is Mandi, who kept asking what a certain cupcake was!
Happy birthday, friend!
Urgent Prayers Needed
A teacher at my school’s 7 year old son was riding his skateboard on Saturday afternoon when he was struck by an SUV. He is in critical, but stable condition. Please keep Marcus in your prayers. He has many broken bones, as well as swelling of the brain. They are keeping him in an induced coma for his body to heal. Please pray hard that there will be no brain damage.
Please visit his caring bridge site and leave a message letting his family know you are praying for him. It gives them strength to see how many people are praying. Also, put him on your church prayer list.
First Day of School!
Jake started his first day of 6th grade and Bailey started her first day of 3rd grade today. I can’t believe they’re so old! Bailey & Reece are in the same class together this year, so that is really nice!
Girls trip to Florida
I’m finally back to blogging, after a wonderful week in Florida visiting Lesley & Giovanni. Here are some of the highlights from the trip.
Here is Bailey on her first flight.
Giovanni missed Bailey! He wouldn’t let her hand go on the drive home.
The next morning, we quickly got in the pool. Man, do I miss having a pool.
Imagine our surprise when Giovanni points to the corner of the screen and yells, Iguana! Yep, an iguana has decided to spend it’s days in the screened in pool.
You know me and spiders. I am facinated by them. I was so happy to see what we, as kids, called crab spiders. Tell me these aren’t cool.
Then, we headed to the beach.
That night, we went to the local Elks lodge to play BINGO. I said to our table, “I just need an I-19.” Within a few seconds the caller said, “I-19″ and our table errupted in screams! Here I am with my winning ticket and my $50.
The next evening we took the kids to Clematis by Night, a really cool thing they do on Clematis St. in West Palm Beach. There is a live band, food vendors and fountains.
That night, I hear all this noise in the kitchen- I thought it was Lesley. Nope, it was Howie, the dog getting into trouble. Yep, that’s a garbage can lid around his neck.
The next day we send Giovanni to daycare and we walked around Delray Beach. Here are some pics of Bailey in front of some cool trees.
That night, we went to sit by the water, play in a park and eat at my favorite pub.
Here is Bay being silly with her yummy pub food.
Bailey & Giovanni had to pose in front of the funny statue in the pub.
Next was the fabulous Lion Country Safari. It was hot, but it was fun!
First, you go on a drive through safari. We saw all kinds of animals, from elephants, to ostriches, zebra and monkeys. Then, you walk through a zoo like area and then a small water world.
Our favorite thing was to feed the giraffes and the birds.
Bailey also enjoyed playing with Matilda the snake at Lesley’s house.
Back to the beach it is. There were sea turtle nests everywhere. They were huge areas with signs posted warning you not to disturb them. Very cool stuff.
There’s nothing like a sunset at the beach.
Our last night there, we went and had dinner at Lesley’s parents house. First, we had to drive by the house I grew up in. It was strange because they had made the whole left side of the lot into a nursery, so it looked so small.
Bailey’s looking for tadpoles in the pond.
Lesley, Giovanni & Annie in the pool.
We had a fabulous time!
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