You've Got To Be Kidding Me.....Again!!

This is precisely what I was thinking when I dropped my brand new, expensive earring in the meat department display at Walmart.  The expensive earring broke off of its handle, which was still in my ear, as I reached for a roast.  It went under the cooler and was out of sight.  I was flabbergasted to say the least.  I asked a worker if he could retrieve it for me and was told that they would have to take it all apart.  He then asked me if it was expensive like a diamond, and when I said "NO" he told me that for a diamond he would do it but if not, NO WAY!  HUMPH!  I was perturbed, but oh well.  I only spent $10.00 on the earrings, but that is a lot for me.  And plus, I REALLY, REALLY LIKED THEM!

It's My Party!!

Me enjoying the last sweet moments of my Bruster's New York Cheesecake Ice Cream.  YUMMY!  I had the best day ever!  My kids let me sleep past 7 a.m. which is a feat for them.  Then once I got downstairs they had my breakfast all ready and they had drawn me two pictures, plus I was serenaded with "Happy Birthday Mommy".  Gotta love being a mom!

 (This is Vaughn's camera action as he takes a picture of my mouth full of ice cream.)

After breakfast, the kids and I headed to McFee park for some fun in the sun with the gals from church.  It was HOT!  And I dipped myself into the splash pad just to cool off.  Then it was home to relax and get ready for my HOT date with Vaughn.

(If you look closely you can see my new PINK running shoes Vaughn and the kids gave me.  LOVE THEM!)

Vaughn took me to Shonto's in Market Square for my favorite, SUSHI!  I had been craving it all day. We stuffed ourselves silly and then went to Bruster's for dessert.  I won't have to eat till tomorrow.  HA

Doesn't that look good!

It was an awesome birthday.  Thank you to all my family for the presents, wishes and cards.  Thanks to all my friends for the wishes, watching my children and making my day special!

You Have Got To Be Kidding!!!

Some days I should just stay in bed and try again the next day.  Everything was going great today until I went to pay for my groceries at Wal-mart and noticed that my credit card was MISSING.  The checker asked me if everything was okay as I frantically searched my purse for the missing card.  I wanted to cry!  Luckily I have an emergency card and this was an emergency.  Once the kids and I were home I gave the car, my purse and my house a thorough searching only to come up empty handed.  In despair, I called the credit card company to report a lost/stolen card.  (I didn't know what it was).  I was so fortunate to have a young man, who was American, and kind, help me cancel the card and issue me a new one.  I didn't loose any of my points, which was a good thing because I have a lot of them.  After that my nerves were shot and the best thing I could do was help the kids with a puzzle.  ARG!  Now I have to wait till next week for a new card.  Guess my shopping and anything else will be on hold.  Good thing I am ahead of the game when it comes to school shopping or we would be in trouble.

July in Review

 July has...well...I do not know where half this month went.  Yesterday it was the 4th of July and today it is the 21st.  It is all a blur.  Good thing I have taken pictures to remind me of what we have been doing.

4TH OF JULY

I have heard about this awesome parade in Farragut, Tennessee, for the 4th of July.  Taryn has never seen a parade and Tyson can barely remember the ones he has seen.  It was time!  I had my crew up and at em' by the crack of dawn so we could get a good seat on Kingston Pike.  We even stopped by McDonald's for breakfast and ate it while waiting for the parade.  The kids loved that!

The kids and I awaiting the parade.  The weather started out quite pleasant and then it turned HOT!

 We ran into some friends there, The Barnes Family, and waved at the parade with them.

 Love my Red, White and Blue girl.

 If you look closely, the American Flag can be seen hanging out the door of the helicopter.  There were two of them flying over head before the parade started.  I love being an AMERICAN!!

 The patrol motorcycles were the first to appear and they had the music "Bad Boys" playing.  Kind of ironic.

The cheerleaders from Farragut High School handed out their school colored pom poms.  The kids waved them and waved them for about 2 minutes, and then they sat in my lap.  Love it!

This guy is running for some kind of councilman in the town of Farragut, and he dressed up like Barney off of Leave it to Beaver.  He was passing out candy.  The kids weren't too sure what to make of him. 

This poor horse looked so hot.  It had this amazing saddle, bridle and ornaments that were silver all over his body.  It was pretty, but it looked heavy and miserable for the horse.

After the parade we had to beat the heat and headed to the pool with The Barnes.  Vaughn rarely gets to go swimming with us, because he is always at the hospital, but today he was with us the whole time.  Taryn loved having daddy throw her in the pool.

 Happy kids! 

After swimming it was shower, dinner and head over to the golf course for the fireworks.  About half our church ward was there to watch the spectacle.  They didn't disappoint.  The fireworks were amazing!

ZOO PLAY DATE

 Thursday, July 19th, the kids and I headed with the playgroup to the zoo.  Inside the butterfly house Tyson caught a butterfly with his finger. He thought that was SO cool. (He is such a handsome kid) (:

Both Tyson and Taryn wanted to be like the "Gator Boys" on television and stick their heads in the stuffed crocodile.  Tyson was a little timid.

 Taryn was not shy at all.  She wanted to look down it's throat.

 The back sides of Iris, Taryn and Sara as they watched the stinky elephants.

 Look at that gaggle of kids.  From Left to Right: Zach, Tyson, Sara, Taryn, Iris, Benson, Reese, and Lucy.

 
 Another group shot just outside the chimps domain.

 Tyson looks tired doesn't he.  HA HA HA  He isn't really sleeping, just posing for the camera.

Taryn loves to drive the jeep at the zoo.  We had such a blast seeing all the animals and playing at their new splash pad.

MOVIE NIGHT

Saturdays are our movie night and tonight's feature was "Return to Neverland."  It was such a lazy afternoon.  I slept most of it.  I have no idea why I was so tired, but now I am wide awake and it is midnight.  HA! Well...at least I am catching up on my blog writing and I did just finish another paper for my class.  Only one more test, 3 papers and 3 discussions to go and I am finished and can get my teaching licence back! (I think that is why I cannot remember this month.  I have been studying each night till the wee hours of the morning, taking tests and writing papers all for my class. Yes, that would explain my brain damage)

Time in Knoxville with Grandma T

THIS POST HAPPENED JUNE 19TH-27TH

I love it when my mom comes to visit.  It has been since Thanksgiving when we last saw her and so much happens around here in that time.  The kids grow and grow, we change and gosh I just miss her.  But I am so blessed that she came to be with us for a whole week.  She had just returned from a trip to Disneyland and brought the kids some souvenirs.  She always has something in her suitcase for the kids and they look forward to her opening it up.  They know it holds goodies for them.

Taryn looked so cute in her princess Minnie ears and to make it even more special, my mom found my old collection of My Little Pony's.  She brought them for Taryn to have, via my request.  I am so glad I kept these toys for my little princess to play with.  She loved them and hasn't stopped playing with them.

We had to take Grandma T to Dollywood and play.  So at the crack of dawn the 2nd day she was here, we drove to Sevierville and went to Dollywood.  I had her ride the Wild Eagle with Tyson, since I have already been on it, and she loved it.  Then I shoved them both onto the Tennessee Tornado.

This is them going up a loop.  I should have known better than to put them on one ride after another, but I thought they could handle it.  I was wrong.  After the Tennessee Tornado, they were both nauseated. We then walked down to the County Fair area where Taryn could ride the rides and mom and Tyson relaxed a bit.

It wasn't too long and Tyson was back on another swinging ride.  He loves the rides.

Taryn and I found a little ropes course built for little guys like her and played on it for 30 minutes, while we waited for Tyson and Grandma to ride some rides.  Look at her concentration.

She enjoyed it.

They look like they are in jail, but actually they are waiting to ride the baby roller coaster.  My mom could handled that one.

Grandma T felt better.

Grandma and Tyson rode the bumper cars and Grandma T got stuck in a corner.  It was so funny.  She couldn't get it turned in the right direction for about a full minute.

I love this picture of the four of us, even if Taryn's face is obstructed with the bar in the middle.  We had a blast at Dollywood.  We stayed there from the time it opened up at 10 am till 7 pm.  We ended the day with some yummy BBQ and a train ride around the park.  Needless to say we were pooped by the time we reached Knoxville.

Grandma T always knows how to have fun.  She and Taryn played outside with bubbles for an hour one day.

Two living DOLLS!!!  Love them.

Then Tyson had to get in on the action and it was the synchronized bubble act.  They made the bubbles and Taryn ran around the back yard popping them.  I was the camera woman.

Monday night we went to the showing of "Brave." We hardly ever go to the movies with all of us cause it is so gosh darn expensive, but since Grandma T was here we made an exception.  The movie was awesome and one we will purchase for the collections.

Tyson loved the fact that we got a .50 cent coke.  He drank most of it!

On Grandma T's last day in Knoxville we drove to Gatlinburg to the Aquarium. My kids have been one other time and they loved it then.  It was even more fun to show Grandma all the exciting animal life there was to see.

 Taryn was being a pill and wouldn't smile for the picture.  But the second I took the camera away she would giggle and laugh.  Little pistol!!!

 Grandma T and grand kids on the moving sidewalk under the shark tank.

 This guys was kinda freaky with his many, many rows of teeth.  I don't want to swim with him.

 We didn't see the turtle last time and so this was so neat to see it.  We were told he doesn't come out much.

 I love the jellies!  I think they are so beautiful.  But their sting hurts!

 I hate spiders and this spider crab rates right up there with them.  Imagine swimming in the ocean and seeing one of these things.  I would die!

 If you look closely you can see the octopus's eyes.  They look so scary!

 They had an amazing shark exhibit at the aquarium.  This showed how much force the jaws of the Great White Shark has.  Looks like "Jaws".

There was even this part of the exhibit where they had live shark sacks with baby sharks inside of them.  You could see them moving around inside the sack.  So cool!
It was so sad to see my mom go.  We had so much fun with her here.  It makes me miss home even more, but we already have a date set for her to come back and visit and that gives us all something to look forward to.  Love you momma!