Fun With Papa

My kids love to wrestle and the bigger the giant, the "funner" the fight!

More Fun Family Pics

Family Pictures

Back in April, Shannon did some family pictures for us. I haven't posted them before now because they were Mother's Day presents for the Moms and I didn't want them to see them. Anyway, Shannon did a great job - the mom's loved them!

The Great Hail Storm

I have been meaning to post some pictures from our hail storm a couple of weeks back. It was fascinating up to the end and then it just got plain scary. It hailed longer than I have ever seen it hail and they were pretty big. We are still trying to decide if we need to contact the insurance company about our roof!

Sibling Rivalry - This is War!

Well, folks, it has begun. Summer is here and my children are in a race to see who will kill each other first. Let me just say that at this point, I am taking any and all advice from everyone so please feel free to post your comments. Now, on to what I have tried. Let's see. First of all we have given the Biblical run down on what God says about treating each other with kindness and compassion, explained in great detail. Second, we have tried the Golden Rule - "Treat others as you wish to be treated", explained in great detail. Third, I have disciplined until I am blue in the face. I have spanked, timed out, sent to rooms, stood in the corner, spanked some more, etc. etc. Fourth, I have forced togetherness with the explanation that "you will play with no one else until you learn to play nice with each other. Can you say torture for the whole family? Last, but I'm sure not least, I have come up with a new one. They know what the Bible says about how to treat each other, we have disciplined REPEATEDLY to no avail, so now I am onto Churchill UFC! That's right. I have now given them permission to beat the tar out of each other as long as nobody bleeds in my house and, of course, you know, that they don't ACTUALLY kill each other. You see, Tyler has a very bad tendency to hit EVERYONE, not just Kayla, but everyone, for no reason, all the time, everyplace, everywhere, for no good reason. That ticks me off! So, he is in for a taste of his own medicine. Yes, yes, yes, I know there are probably some of you out there reading this that are giving me the "so you're going to try to teach your kid not to hit by letting somebody hit him"? Yep, that's about right. As I said, I'm totally open to more suggestions! If this doesn't work then I'm thinking about getting some rope and just tying them together! I'm kidding, don't call DFACS on me! I refuse to join the crowds of parents who are miserable all summer long because their children fight like cats and dogs. So, if they choose to be miserable that is fine. I, however, plan to beat them at their own game, so to speak! Bless Lisa Whelchel for her book on Creative Corrections! Don't know if she would approve of this, but when the going gets tough, the tough have to get some new material!

Home Sweet Home

Well, we made it home last night around 10:00. We DID stop twice on the way home and I was extremely grateful for that! Today has been busy just trying to get settled back in. I forced myself to go out on my walk this morning even though it was already hot, but I was glad I did it after I got home! Then Kayla and I tried to give some TLC to all of my flowers. Most of them weathered five days of no water pretty well, but I have one that I'm not sure is going to make it. At least all of the ones out front survived. We pulled weeds and plucked dead blooms and watered. Then I spent the majority of the rest of the morning sorting through paperwork, mail, and paying bills. The afternoon found us at the grocery store trying to restock my cupboards! Has anyone besides me noticed how the grocery prices have gone sky high? Hhhhmmmm... We got home about 4:00 and Tyler wanted to rock-a-bye. He is one tired boy after five days with the grandparents - he plays so hard! So I rocked him to sleep and even snoozed a little myself. Can I tell you that it is now 9:30 and that boy is still sleeping? He will be up at 5:00 tomorrow probably but at least he will be well rested. Tomorrow we are attacking the poopy training again. How fun.

As for the weekend with both sets of parents - it was a lot of fun! We got to enjoy my parent's pool, which the kids loved. The water was freezing the first day, but the sun was not, so I got torched(my own fault), so I wasn't too eager to get back in. Papa took Kayla in on Sunday afternoon and they had a big time. I think Kayla got the most enjoyment out of watching Papa try to get on his float; apparently, he was less than coordinated!!! Mom and I shopped until we dropped, literally! We finished decorating her living room and redecorating her master bath. I love doing that kind of shopping and it all looked so pretty when it was done. I even got to enjoy some of my mil's homemade apple pie! Yum! The guys did a great job on the bathroom renovation, although I think Craig completely wore his dad out! They finished it up enough so that R&R can finish up the dry wall and painting work. We tried to stay away from their house so as not to add to the confusion, but the kids spent Saturday morning over there helping Grandma in the garden and also making the pies, and then we enjoyed dinner with them on Saturday night. Saturday afternoon we went to one of my high school friend's weddings. That is the first time that I have seen some of my friends from school since we graduated in '94. How funny! One of my boyfriends from HS is now a youth minister!!! That cracked me up, but you have to know him to appreciate it I guess. Anyway, the wedding was suprisingly fun even though I was dreading it a little bit. You don't know what to expect after not seeing people for almost 15 years! But it turned out to be fun!

I guess that about sums up our trip and our day of catching up!

Still Here, But Heading Home Soon

We ended up spending another day here in Tennessee. The bathroom project took a little longer than expected, but it looks like it is wrapping up! Today, Craig and his dad are hanging the shower door and finishing up. So, we are planning on heading home around noon or 1:00.

We have had a nice visit. Mom and I have shopped for house stuff and got her living room just about all the way decorated. We are off this morning to one more store for some flowers for an arrangement that I am going to attempt to put together for her. It has been fun to have time to shop and go to lunch and all of the fun things that you don't get to enjoy living several hours apart! Dad and Kayla spent the afternoon in the pool yesterday - she loved that! I haven't been back in since getting burned to a crisp on Thursday!

I guess that it is for now - hope everyone had a great weekend!