Huntsville

Last weekend we went to the Children's Hands on Museum and the Space and Rocket Museum in Huntsville. It rained in Birmingham all day but we dodged the rain and drove to Hunstville. It was a last minute idea but a good one. We only encountered about 5 minutes of a light shower when we were eating lunch and then about 5 minutes on the drive back home down I-65.

We had a great time and of course David loved looking at the rockets and space shuttle. A man even showed us how to make our own rocket using a film canister, water and alkaseltzer.

Since David wants to be a doctor (because he gets to wear gloves) he thought this life size Operation game was pretty awesome. He played it for quite some time and was pretty good.
Brad was controlling a robotic arm by using a couple joysticks and some buttons. He was able to successfully pick up one of those colorful balls. I was not.
Playing with some sort of black magnet dust stuff. It was a neat exhibit, but they warned us not to touch our eyes afterwards. Luckily, we had no eye issues here.
All in all, we had a great time in Hunstville. It's a nice city and we enjoyed the day spending time together.

Visit from Pa Pop

Last weekend Brad's dad (Pa Pop) flew in for a visit. It was great to have him here (even though I rained a LOT). He came in this particular weekend because it was David's last t-ball game. It got rained out, but we still celebrated the end of the season at the local pizza place with all of his new little friends.

We dodged most of the rain on Saturday by driving to the Montgomery Zoo. I was surprised to see that M'gomery Zoo was way better than Birmingham's. We are lucky to have any zoo in our town, but I'll drive to M'gomery any time to go to that zoo. We had a nice time and ended the day by eating ice cream cones while sitting about 25 feet away from two lions and 6 giraffes. Pa Pop is the only one with a camera that day - so I have no zoo pictures to show.

However, below are a few pictures from the day he left. Sorry, Pa, if you are reading this, that you almost missed your flight. Next time we'll get you to the airport more than 20 minutes before your flight is scheduled to leave!
We drove to the back of the airport to watch if Pa's plane was going to take off on time. It took off a few minutes late (we understood why later....Pa called and said they were calling his name over the intercomm and he showed up just as they were closing the door to the plane). :)

Taggies

Lately I've been doing a bit of sewing. I saw a Taggie brand blanket about a year ago and the idea stuck with me to make one for David. A taggie blanket is basically a small blanket about 12 x 12 inches with tags of ribbon sticking out of the edges. I attempted to make one for David for Christmas because he has always loved playing with the tags on everything - blankets, quilts, shirts, even his underwear. It was a hit, he loves his blanket and sleeps with it every night. It's much more manageable than a larger blanket and easy to carry around (if needed).

Fast forward 5 months, it seems that a lot of my friends are pregnant. So I've started making these as gifts. I am that friend who loves to make things as gifts, rather than buy stuff. I've always been this way - I self taught myself to crochet and made my first blanket for Angie's baby girl when I was 19. I've since all but given up on crocheting and knitting - it takes SOOOO long. One big problem with making gifts is that I don't necessarily finish all of my projects on time....or even close to being on time. You'll see one prime example at the end of this post. I'm working on my timing!

Since I've made David's taggie blanket and these below I've begun seeing them all over the place, there are blankets and balls and books with tags on them. I am sure to explain to friends what they are, because I've had more than one friend look at me oddly - not understanding why I'm giving them a blanket that is one foot square! It's all about the tags, people.

Here are a few pictures of some of the ones I've made recently as gifts.


Here are two non-taggie blanket related pictures, but I thought I'd post them anyhow.

This isn't a taggie blanket, but Mykell if you are reading this - this is the quilt I made for Joey in September of 2008. You'll get it as soon as I can find it and mail it to you! :)
David helped me paint this old piano bench of Brad's moms. It was old and falling a part. We took off the top and cut a new piece of wood to fit it. Rather than a piano bench it's now just a table which holds his tv in his playroom. Of course I didn't think to take a picture of the finished product. I will. Later.

David is my budding artist (wearing a 4-wheeling shirt). He likes all things art (and dirty - like dirt biking and 4-wheeling and go kart riding). Just like his mama.

David's Favorite Thing Ever

Right now all David wants to do is ride his bike. He's getting really good - in fact, we bought him a new bicycle this past weekend (not the one pictured below). He had grown out of his Tonka bike and it was time to move on to the "army" bike. It has bigger wheels and just fits him better. He got on it and rode it like a pro.

A few weekends ago we had a load of dirt delivered for my vegetable garden. We ended up with a small pile left that Brad shaped into a ramp of sorts for David to ride over. He rode over that hill for what seemed like an hour. He loved it.

Home sweet home

So my out patient surgery went well yesterday. I'm not sure why I was so nervous about it, but I now see that all that worrying wasn't necessary. I was really impressed with Brookwood, from the admission desk, to my doctor (of course, who I really like), to all the nurses and the transportation lady who wheeled me to the car (after I puked multiple times). The worse part was coming out of anesthesia. I was miserable all evening, but today I've felt fine. Just had some pain, but have been able to control it with drugs.

Brad was a great caretaker of me when I got home. He did everything for me, was very attentive to my needs, and made me noodle soup for dinner. He's so good to me!

I'm glad to be home! Home sweet home.

PS - Thanks to Holly who let David spend two nights with her this week. She is such a sweet friend and always so willing to help with David. She loves him as much as we do - and spoils him rotten! But I guess that's what aunts are for, huh?

Tomorrow

I'm having out patient surgery tomorrow morning. Unsure of the time. It's not really a big deal...but since I'm the world's biggest sissy and have never had any surgery of any substance before - I'm a bit nervous. Mostly nervous about waking up during the process. That happened when I had my wisdom teeth out. I woke up yelling in pain. The anesthesiologist department told me that will not happen, since they use real anesthesia meds and since it's at the hospital it's much different than a dentist's office. I'm SURE they are absolutely correct. I just pray that I'll let myself relax and not be all nervous about it. I know I'm in God's hands....so that's really enough for me.

Camping with the Herrington's

By Herringtons - I mean us and Brad's brother, sister-in-law and their two girls. Unfortunately, the most senor Herrington couldn't make it to this trip.

We drove to Madison, Florida Wednesday night and stayed in the Jellystone Campground through Sunday....it was a GREAT long weekend and just what we needed. The campground was set up really nice - they had many things to offer the guests to keep us busy all weekend long.

We spent the weekend -

camping
fishing
riding the golf cart
riding our bikes
grilling
kayaking
padle boating
swimming (in the lake and pool)
sliding (down the 60 foot water slide)
playing on the play ground
playing kickball
making smores
train riding (the wet and wild one)
karaoke watching
putt putt golfing
movie watching
napping
sleeping in
campfire making
mudslide and pina colada drinking (for the adults of course)
magazine reading
and relaxing

Some other highlights were -

Olivia went down the 60 foot water slide by herself and without floaties. David wouldn't even ride it on my lap. :(
We moo'd at some cows
Saw our family and had a fantastic time spending 4 days with them
Watched David learn how to ride a wheelie on his bicycle
David saw his first shooting star and Uncle Rich and Daddy were there to witness it
Ate icecream at the lodge
Played hide-and-go-seek in the dark
Slept with the windows open

It was the perfect weekend, there was zero rain and the temp was in the high 60's to the low 80's. Perfect for camping.

I'm not feeling very creative tonight and am not much into writing out everything we did...and I'm sure no one wants to read it all.....so here is some of what we did in pictures.

David, Savannah, Rich and I went for a swim in the pool (which was rather cold). David learned how to float using a noodle. He's not much of a swimmer, but we are going to sign him up for swim lessons this summer.

Much to my frustration - the squirrels attached our gorp (which is just cheerios, peanuts, m&m's, and raisens). Guess they were looking for the peanuts. This is my favorite Pampered Chef bowl and lid....the lid is now trash. At least the stainless steel bowl is fine!
Posing for the camera.
Our friends let us borrow their pop up camper for the weekend. It was really nice not having to tent camp.
This is Rich and Leslee's toy hauler/camper. It's really nice and they can put their bikes and 4x4's in the back of it. Sorry, Leslee, for the butt shot!
Savannah -
Yogi Bear, Boo Boo and the kids -
Leslee trying to get the hook out of the mouth of the fish she caught -
Savannah playing the tuba -
We even had a Thanksgiving dinner (complete with smoked turkey, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce and rolls)...it was delicious, thanks to Rich and Leslee -
I went on the Wet and Wild train ride with the kids and here are a few pictures -
Rich getting everyone wet using the water hose -
Then, me trying to keep myself and Olivia dry (she had just gotten a bath and had clean/dry clothes on) -
And, finally, here are some of the most common shots I usually get from the family:
First is Brad hiding behind the curtain -
Next, is Leslee hiding behind her hand WITH a scowl on her face -
Lastly, David after he noticed I was taking his picture, he put his hand up too -
What's with these Herrington people?