Goodbye summer ... hello fall



Our new nanny ... the trampoline.

 I realize that this could qualify me for mother of year. The girls get home from school at 3. I still have 2+ hours of work left. Of course I could spend $30 extra per day to send them to aftercare at their school but why would I spend $150 extra bucks a week for them to be away from home even more then they already are???? The weather has been nice so the only logical thing would be for them to get in their trampoline and let me zip them up inside it while threatening bad things if they get off the trampoline. OR, they have a choice of watching a movie or playing in their playroom. They ALWAYS pick the nanny trampoline.  They are never out of view from me in the house, they are burning off tons of energy and they are becoming quite skillful at trampoline tricks. We are talking potential circus stars here!

We have been busy little beavers around here. It is a shame that I have to look at the pics on my phone to remind me of what all we have been doing this past month. So ... I'll let the do pictures do the talking:

COUNSELOR THURMAN

HC's teacher called me last week and I could hear HC crying hard in the background. My heart skipped a beat.... because HC is not normally a cry baby. Her teacher asked if I could talk to HC because she is hysterical because she had to move her name to the yellow light for not following directions. Her teacher said that HC kept saying "My momma's gonna beat me." After I laughed out loud, I tried talking to her but she was inconsolable. Finally, with me on the phone, the teacher told her that if she was good the rest of the day that she would let her move her name back to the green light. Within 5 seconds HC dried up her tears and was playing with her classmates. I've said it once and I'll say it again, that child has some seriously wicked negotiating skills. Oh .. and for the record ... the "My momma's gonna beat me" statement actually means "If I don't get green lights all week I can't get Gracie Blues (frozen yogurt) piled high with toppings at the end of the week." Later on that night I asked HC what "a beating" means and she said, "You know Momma, when your heart goes beat, beat, beat. And if it stops going beat, beat, beat it means you are not happy with me."



ADULT RETREAT





Jamie and I had a grown-up weekend at the lake with my bunko gals....thanks the Penney Lane. It was great to get away and do grownup things. Some of us got a little carried away with all the freedom ... not mentioning names but he is the father of 5 year old twins. But all in all, it was a great weekend! A special thanks to Nana and Paw Paw for keeping our little tinker toys all weekend. They LOVE it at their house and beg to go all the time. And who am I to stop them .... so they have been over there a ton lately!

 THE TEXANS

We enjoyed a nice weekend with Grandpa Hagel and Glenda. A little birdie told me that we might be seeing them more then 2 or 3 times a year:)

 RUBY RENEE

Poor Rubes had a birthday ... big number 8. The following week she had to go to the vet for a sprang hip. Poor old girl was in pain. The good news is that she can still see some out of 1 eye and the hip healed in about 10 days.





CHUCKY CHEESE



The girls got invited to their first birthday party at Chucky Cheese from Quinn's little BFF at their new school. Anyone that knows Quinn understands her freakishly, deathly fear of characters in costume. She shakes, screams and bolts. Sometimes her fear is so great she wets herself. It is like nothing I've ever seen. But she assured me that she wanted to go to this party. Her and I spent 3/4 of the party in a germ infested booth by the front door with her under the table and squeezed between my knees while screaming "TAKE ME HOME. WHERE'S CHUCKY? IS HE COMING? TAKE ME HOME." Meanwhile, HC is stalking Chucky to tell him a) that she loves him and b) to not go near her sister.  Finally ... he left and Quinn was able to enjoy herself ... somewhat. She looked like a kitten around a herd of large dogs ... very on edge.


 OSCAR

While Jamie has been busy playing with his new toy, Oscar (AKA a 69' Road Runner) I have been attempting to become a real Catholic because evidently I've been a fake one all these years. So, for the next 6 months, I will be in RCIA classes at the church for a couple hours every week. I missed the first weekend of classes because of the "Adult Retreat" mentioned above. Jamie about chocked to death when I told the Nun that I would be missing the first class because we already had an adult retreat planned. What .... I didn't lie! We retreated to the lake with adults.

OSAKA



After a day of shopping, we decided to take Amy to her first ever Fire Ching Ching restaurant (AKA Japanese food).


TRAINING WHEELS





This was the first day Jamie took the girls over to the park to ride their bikes. He is in the process of weaning them off of their training wheels. He sent me this video, via phone of course, and I immediately went and made a sticky note to put on the door that read, “must wear tennis shoes when riding bikes and fix Quinnie’s helmet.” So don’t worry Grandma’s, those corrections have been made! They have done this 3 nights this week and they look forward to it all day. Last night I didn’t let them go because evidently a sassy, smart mouthed 13 year old took over my sweet baby girls mouth.

We also went to the Cooper-Young Fest, the Big One flea market and the Farmer’s Market in downtown Memphis. So girls, the reason you don’t remember most of your childhood is because we stayed too busy….. in-between all of the beatings of course.