St. Simons/Jekyll Island

Life here is good. It is hard to believe that we have been here 4 days now. My how time flies when you are away from "reality." The girls are having a blast! For the first couple of days all they could talk about was going to the beach and finding "she shells." It's so fun seeing how excited they get about seeing the sand and water.

On Sunday morning, we got up and when to church at Lovely Lane Chapel. It was a nice way to start off our trip as well as the day. After church, we then headed to the village at the pier and found a "hidden jewel." There was a store in the pier called "Lela's." Lela was so excited to she her name on the sign. We made quite a few pictures with her standing in front of it and even bought her a t-shirt from there. (Poor kid, this will probably be the only time in her life that she will have something personalized due to her name and the spelling, it's definitely not one of the more common names out there.)

We took the trolley all over the island, too. Talk about an interesting way to see everything. We learned of the colorful history this island has to offer. Of course both girls fell asleep as the wind pasted through the windows, creating such a nice and relaxing breeze. After the trip on the trolley, we ate at one of Kevin's favorite place of all times - Barbara Jean's. It was good!!!

Yesterday, we took a trip down to Jekyll Island for the day. They have a smaller version of Whitewater called "Summer Waves." The girls had so much fun there!!! Lela went up and down on the water slide at least a hundred times it seemed. Lacey we put life jacket on her and had her floating on her back in the lazy river. She got so relaxed floating on her back that she actually fell asleep. Too Cute!! I have discovered that the best way to get them to take a nap is to completely exhausted them. When we take this course of action they will fall asleep within minutes.

Last night we had a nice rain, leaving the air feeling little more humid and everything more green. Dinner was at Mullet Bay, where we dined on shrimp, deviled crabs and mahi mahi. Mom had never had mahi mahi before, but has discovered that it has become one of her favorites. Today, we are taking it slow. Lacey didn't wake until around 9:00 am, we will probably head down toward the pier at some point. Tonight Laura, Ben and the boys will arrive. The girls can't wait to see their cousins. Tomorrow is Evan's birthday so we will have a party at some point, and Kevin will head back to reality. The girls and I still have a few more days of R and R. Yeah!!!

Our Little Performers

In the midst of trying to get ready to leave, the girls decided to put on a show for me tonight after dinner.

Well.....

Friday is finally here! Tomorrow we leave for St. Simons Island. The girls are giddy as can be. I'm running around trying to get last minute stuff together and hoping I don't leave anything.

Lela had tennis lessons this morning. It was her last one for the summer before school starts back. She announced that she didn't want to continue with it after this session. I was a little shocked because it seems like she has really enjoyed it and has improved quite a lot since she first started. She told me the reason was because she was going to be in kindergarten and she just really didn't have time for it. (Thank you.) Talk about a wise little girl, she is such an old soul. I'm glad that she has at least had the experience of doing tennis.

The one thing I'm hoping that I will be able to do while we are gone is keep the blog updated. (I know it's just sad. It's become my addiction.) Since the girls and I are not coming back until next Friday, that is a long time for me not to blog. Kevin, though, will be home a little sooner due to work responsibilities :(

We already have somewhat of an idea of things we want to do. Sunday, we are planning on going to church at Lovely Lane Chapel (this where we got married.) They have a 30 minute sermon each Sunday, so hopefully Lacey can be quiet enough to get through it. I'm thinking if she has her "milky", "baby" and Mommy to hold her we should be good to go. We also plan on taking the Trolley Tour around St. Simons, which I'm very excited about. (We rented it when we got married but had never done the tour before.) The girls love doing stuff that involves riding buses or anything of that nature. We have gone to the hospital and the big thing is getting ride in the golf cart from the parking lot to the lobby. Go figure. Another thing I think the girls will like is going down to Jeykll Island to the water park; from everything I have seen it is basically a smaller version of WhiteWater.

Got to run, luggage and laundry are calling my name.....where is my housekeeper when I need her?

Creative Spirit

I am a big believer in creativity, but this going to extremes? Lacey is so our free spirited child. Yet again, I let her and sister color with markers and make pictures with stickers on them. Obviously Lacey had another idea on her mind. She decided to get undressed, marker up her legs, arms and face, then take all the stickers out of the container and spread them on the floor??? Oh, how I love her!!!

More Sewing Projects

Here are few more things that I have been working on. A few quilt tops and one is a handbag that I just finished up the other night. This is definitely the creative outlet I need in my life.




This quilt I entitled:
Summertime at the Hamptons













This quilt is called:
Strawberry Pie














I call this one:
Chocolate Hearts

Getting Ready

Everyone is excited, we are getting ready for our trip to St. Simons Island. It will be the girls first time going and our first time back since getting married there in 2000. Wow, where has the time gone? It's hard to believe that we have been married almost 8 years! Between teaching classes, cleaning house and keeping the peace between the girls I'm going crazy. I swear there is just as much preparation in going out of town as there is in returning. Every morning Lela proceeds to tell me how many more days until we leave. I know it won't get here fast enough for her.

TGIF

I'm so glad it's Friday!!! Talk about a long week. We're all pretty worn out that's for sure. Lela's last day of dance camp was this morning and they got to dance for us. She did really good. It was her first time getting to jazz dance which was a new experience for her. It is definitely something she seems to enjoy. It was fun watching the little girls dance; trying to imagine Lacey doing that in a few weeks. She is such a loose cannon I just don't know what to expect with her. She will either love all the attention of getting to perform in front of others or she is gonna hate it, and your guess is as good as mine as to how she will do.

After Lela's little performance, we all headed to her favorite place to eat...Johnny's Pizza. Of course, she got her usual - cheese pizza. It was just nice having lunch all together - Kevin, me and the girls. Since Publix is in the same shopping center, the girls and I went in and picked up a few items. While we were in the store, we ran into Lacey's new teacher - "Miss" Cynthia - who she will have this fall. Cynthia and I started talking and I was telling Lacey who she was and out of nowhere Lacey started acting like a dog. She was barking and putting "baby" in her mouth; telling us "I am a dog." Why me? Only Lacey.....

Now were home (yeah!) and I have big plans. I bought some peaches at Publix and I'm going to make a peach cobbler for the first time. I also would love to sit down and sew; I have new handbag pattern that I'm dying to make. But as usual the house needs to be cleaned and there is some laundry to do. Where's the maid when you need her? I guess she is off.

Sewing Fiend

I have become somewhat of a sewing fiend these days. Last fall, mom and I took a quilting class which started a new passion for me again....sewing.

I have discovered one of my favorite things to do is going to fabric stores area the metro Atlanta area. And let me tell you there are some really cool fabric stores out there, which of course carry really cool patterns and fabrics. I have made Lacey a number of pillowcase dresses. My favorite thing is bags...I guess it's 'cause I'm a bag lady at heart. Here are just a few of things I've been working on:

Why Me???

Technology, you either love it or hate it...

Last night I went to put my Jazzercise set together on my IPod for this mornings class. When I turned on my IMac (which is about 6 years old, a dinosaur some may call it) didn't come up. I turned it off then switched it back on. Nothing. I tried again. And again nothing happened. After I did this about 10 times or so I realized that my computer as far as I'm concerned is DOA. I was a little freaked out because I have a lot of my music on that computer and I wanted to get my play list set for this morning's class. Needless to say that didn't happen. Kevin and I talked about what I thought might have happened and we decided that I would use one of our laptops for my music. I then started to hook up my IPod to the laptop, when I got a prompt that said my IPod would be erased and reformatted. YIKES!!! I didn't want that happening at 10:00 pm knowing that I had to teach at 9:30 am. So, I reluctantly left my set as it was for today's class and just pieced everything together. (The class didn't flow as I would have liked for it to.) So, this afternoon I will spend in front of the computer downloading music and creating a new playlist for tommorrow morning. I'm hoping that I it won't be that bad just time consuming.

Lacey got her hair cut today. She looks so cute!!! It's in a bob with the back cut short and it is angled toward her face. She reminds of a little girl from the 1920s. Talk about sassy!!!

Lela started dance camp. She is so excited because she actually got to start jazz dance. All I have heard from her for the past few months is how she wants to jazz dance. In fact she has even said on a few occasions that is what she wants to be when she grows up is a jazz dancer. They got to dance to High School Musical and Ali and AJ (two of her favorites.) She was in heaven. On Friday they give a little performance for the parents to show up what they did during the week that is always fun.

Talk About Busy

I've had to teach more than my usual three classes this week. Dianne went out of town and I have been covering her classes. It feels good to be teaching more. The only problem is having to drag the girls to class twice a day. I know they get tired of it, but they are little troopers.

After my morning class on Thursday, the three of us went to the movies. The girls were dying to see Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. They really enjoyed it and surprisingly we didn't have to go to the bathroom 3 or 4 times like we normally do. And yes, we brought their American girls' with us - Sally and Julie Albright. I think they even had a good time as well.

Friday, we surprised the girls with a trip to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke. They were both so excited!! It was our first visit to the aquarium and I must say it was nice, but extremely crowded. My favorite "exhibit" was the Beluga Whales. Talk about a personality, one of them kept coming up to the glass and nodding its head at us. We were even told that if it was quiet we could hear them make noise, which sounds like high pitched humming. Needless to say that didn't happen. Lela said her favorite part was the 4-D movie and the jellyfish. Lacey liked seeing "Mr. Ray" and "Nemo." (There's a surprise.)

After the aquarium, we made the walk across the plaza to the World of Coke. There we got to see another 4-D movie as well as taste drinks from different parts of the world. The girls loved that part. Kevin sampled all 60 different flavors; some tasted better than others. Lela even got her picture with the Coke bear. He was too cute.

Then we changed the girls into their bathing suits and let them play in the fountain at Centennial Park. Lela was so excited because it reminded her of her trip to Chattanooga last year when they played in the fountains there. You would think after all of this the girls would have been worn out...WRONG! They didn't fall asleep in the car until after we ate dinner with Gigi and Jim and were on our way back home. Talk about energy, where do they get it???

Yesterday, we took the girls to Jan's to spend the night again this week. Talk about mother's guilt. I really hated that they had to go, but Kevin and I had to go to some Masonry Association Casino Night. It was all the way out in Gwinnett and it didn't start until 8:00 and was suppose to last to midnight. I was very reluctant to go, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The good thing was Kevin did win a $50 MasterCard gift card. Yeah!

This morning we slept in and skipped church. Considering we didn't get home until almost 1:00 in the morning, I think it was OK. Today has definitely been a good day to stay inside and rest. It has done nothing but rain all day.

Air Is Out

Yesterday, our air went out at some point. We turned all the ceiling fans on and brought down the circulating fans. Lacey decided to cool herself off by pulling up her dress and pulling down her panties. She told me she was getting cool!!

Making Birdhouses

My girls have the best dad in the world. (Well, at least that is my opinion. He is always taking them places and doing stuff with them.) This morning was no different. While I was at my yoga class, Kevin took the girls to Dunkin' Donuts and to Home Depot to their kids clinic. At the first of every month Home Depot does a clinic for kids where they get to make something. This month it was a birdhouse. In the past they have made a "roller coaster" and a step stool. They seem to enjoy going. When I got home they were both excited to show me what they did. Now it seems we have to find a place for the birdhouses, according to Lacey they are going to live in her house or so she tells me.

Happy 4th Of July!!!

Nothing too exciting. We cooked out with Mom, Jim, Laura and Evan. Afterwards we headed to downtown Newnan to watch fireworks. The only problem was we thought (and so did a lot of other people) we would be able to see the fireworks from our new park. WRONG!!! All we saw was the tippy tippy tops of fireworks through trees. Kevin, Laura and myself were fine with it, but the kids were a totally different story. Oh well, we'll try again next year. Happy 4th!!!

My 37th Birthday

Well, today I turned 37. How did that happen? I'm still in shock because I don't feel like I'm that old. Oh well like everything in life I guess it just gets away from us. Today for the most part has been quite pleasant, the girls have had a few squabbles but nothing too bad.

The day started when I woke up to a card and a CD from dear husband. He called later that morning after his bible study to let us know he would be bringing us breakfast from Waffle House. (How thoughtful!) When he arrived with breakfast he got the girls to give me their presents, which according to Lacey was "concrete." Actually it was stepping stones with their hand prints in it (there was a slight problem with the first ones so we are going to do them again), but no matter what I love them! They also gave me a Deen Brothers Cookbook - yum!

I then spent the majority of day cleaning and straightening up the house, while the girls played everything from house to going to camp to even playing on the PBS Kids website. I also tried working with Lela on her sight words, but I think lasted maybe at the most 5 minutes. (Her attention span sometimes is non existent.)

Later that evening we went to eat with Mom and Jim at Carrabba's. (Next week Kevin and I are going out again without children - yeah!) After dinner, we all headed back to our house to hookup with Laura, Ben, Sam and Evan and eat cake and ice cream and open presents. The girls were so excited, all Lacey could talk about was putting her fingers in my cake and Lela wanting to open my presents.

Well, they both helped me open presents. I hope we got everything. They were so cute tearing tissue paper from one present to the next. They were going so fast I felt like it was raining sheets of pink and brown tissue. After the presents, we had cake - a Raspberry Elegance cake from Publix. (My absolute favorite cake in the world. It has a cream cheese frosting with raspberry filling and white cake on the inside. It's to die for!) And yes, Lacey did stick her finger in the cake.....numerous times. All in all it was a "Happy Birthday!"