Apple Pickin'

Yesterday was Derek's day off so we decided to head out and do something a little different.

So we rode out to the apple orchard. This was kind of a long drive but everyone was all smiles!

She was so excited to be outside and somewhere new that she would not even stand with Johnny Appleseed for a picture ;)

Once we got started it was on! E was not afraid to battle the limbs and the dirt to find that perfect red apple!

 

Everyone was excited when they found that yummy apple! ;)

E started the morning with hairbows but as you can tell that did not last very long

Emma made sure the ones she picked went in HER bag. She was very serious about her bag of apples. It was soo funny.

I loved just to stand under the trees and look up. It was gorgeous! Pictures just don't do it justice.

This is prob my fav. picture of the day. I love those little hands so much!

Towards the end the exhaustion started to set in but over all it was a wonderful day...

 with picture perfect weather!

We had a great time. I think we might go back in Oct. for the end of harvest festival! Hope this post was a little more enjoyable since I remembered my camera ;)

Happy Tuesday everyone!! Hope it is a great day.

Sunday Snipits

If there is a blog hop for a Sunday Snipit post would somebody please let me know.. I really need a day to kind of sum things up ;) If there is not one then I will just kind of claim stake to this as my post on Sundays!

This has been a crazy and wild weekend! So crazy and wild that I dont have one picture to show for it!? I am getting slack with my camera.. I need to pick it back up and get to snapping.

Friday was my first meeting at MOPS. Actually our church has changed the name of it to have a little more flexibility with the program but the same concept. I really enjoyed the fellowship with other moms. We did not really dive into anything yet just kind of laid out what to expect the fall/winter season and met everyone. Really looking foward to what lies ahead. E really enjoyed her part of the deal. She came home with a huge smile on her face, a sucker in one hand, and art work in the other. The teacher said she danced during worship..which really surprises me because up until now she has been pretty shy during Sunday School. Her teacher also said that Emma has a little bit of a mother hen in her. When the class was getting ready to head to the "lighthouse" (where the preschoolers worship and have a skit and stuff on sundays) Emma was frustrated because everyone was not cleaning up their mess before leaving the room. Yes I am OCD and try to clean up one room before we go to the next. Really dont realize how much that has rubbed off on her. I guess that is not a terrible trait to have though.. right?!

Saturday we pretty much just had a chill day. It was sooo needed. I turned up the radio and did some heavy duty cleaning while E cleaned right beside me. She did have the occasional play room break of course ;) It was so good to just be home and not really have anywhere to go. We got alot done and actually kind of enjoyed it!

Today was football day!!!! It is a tradition that after church we always go down to mom's wearing our team colors and watch a whole lot of football. I wont be able to explain moms outdoor set up to you (maybe I will take my camera next week and try to show ya) but she has a huge deck area then it kind of steps down to a smaller deck area. Off of the smaller deck there is a tiki bar area. It has a huge flat screen TV in it and bar stools. It is a great place to spend the day outside and watch the game. She also has quite a bit of land (we have NONE..hate it) So the kids can run and play with out me worrying nonstop about a road. E was so filthy after playing that I had to give her a bath to even get her home.LOL  So fun!

After a fun filled and crazy weekend we are home, the baby is in the bed, and we are about to watch yet another football game ;)

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun?



PS: yes I realize how boring a post with out pics can be.. promise to take my camera with me tomorrow! We are going to an apple orchard and will be picking our own apples and seeing some farm animals.

A Day To Reflect

I can not believe it has been 9 years since that terrible day!

I was in high school. We were in the middle of a class change and everyone was chatting in the halls while making a quick stop by their lockers to grab books for the next class. Among all the hustle and bustle I hear rumors that a plane had hit the WTC. At first I thought "yea right... what are they talking about" then dismissed the chatter as just a rumor. The more time I spent in the hall way and the more chatter I heard I realized that there must be some truth to this. I picked up my speed and hurried into the next class.

I told the teacher what I had heard and asked her if we may turn on the TV for just a minute. She agreed. I turned on the television and grabbed a seat at my desk. As soon as the picture came into focus I saw the second plane hit the building. I was in shock. A blanket of silence fell over the classroom and spilled over into the hallways. We sat and watched as we tried to figure out exactly what was going on.

The news that this was not an accident speared me like a knife. I was young and did not fully understand but I did grasp the fact that somebody had intentionally drove planes into two building killing thousands of people. As we watched the building crumble into piles of ash and  the people run through the streets tears began to pour down my face. The fear continued to grow as I heard about the pentagon and the plane in PA.

We watched the news the rest of the day at school. Everyone suddenly beamed with love for one another and love for our country! It was amazing to see as we all became united as one.

I will never forget that day. I will never forget the fear and panic of that day. I will never forget the pride for my country and the love for my family I felt that day. I will never forget the sacrifices men and women in uniform make EVERY.DAY to keep us safe here at home...

I will never forget!

Decision time!?

Nobody in my family really reads this blog..other than my mom (Hey Mom!) I try and keep my blog as an outlet. A place to vent where I dont have my family and friends all upset over something I said or did. Sometimes I wish they did read but for the most part I am happy with the fact that is it just me and my imaginary bloggy friends ;)

So here is the predicament I am in. My dad has been down in FL all week this week. He has had PET scans, pain management appointments, primary care docs etc. etc. All of the appointments were bascially just maintenance appointments except for the PET scan. Which in case some of you dont know is a scan that will show everywhere the cancer is in the body. It will show if the cancer has progressed further or if it has stopped growing. It really will tell alot about the future and what is going on with him. Scary stuff!

So instead of having the scan read down in FL he is bringing a Cd of the scan home and have his oncologist here read it (he is in the middle of getting all his docs moved from FL to NC..long process!) The problem lies in the fact that is appointment is Friday morning. My aunt who normally goes with him will be out of town.. so guess who she called. ME! I know you are thinking..well duh.. you are his oldest child, his daughter, you should be able to go with him and help him through this appointment.

Can I be honest here? Call me selfish, inmature, cry baby, wimp or all of those things combined and I will own up to it. BUT I am scared to death to go to this appointment with him. What if they tell him he has x amount of time left to live. Or what if... I dont know! I dont even know what the what if's are I just am scared. I dont want to go to this appointment. I am his baby. I want to sit in the floor in a ball and just cry at the thought of going with him. Maybe I am sheltering myself to much from the reality of what is going on. Maybe I am nieve(have no clue how to spell that) and think if I run from it that it will go away. Truth is I know it wont go away but I prefer to hear the news from a family  member who knows how to break things to me in a gentle way. Not a doctor.. they are usually cold and blunt.

I know I need to grow up and quit being selfish. I know he would rather be with somebody he loves and hear the news gently himself. Why am I whining? Its not about me.. its about him. What he wants, who he wants to be with him. And if it is me he wants then maybe I just need to man up and go with him!??

I dont know. Just please be in prayer. Not sure what will happen. Not sure yet who will go with him or exactly what the appointment will hold. I am going to spend the next day in deep thought and prayer. Praying that God will either give me a peace of mind to go to the appointment or an angel to step in and say they want to be the one to go with him.

Have I told you how much I hate cancer! It is a terrible terrible thing!

This little girl....

This is E doing her "nice" face..whenever I ask her if she is ready to get up and be nice..for some reason she will touch her cheek and say "nice" (who knows?!)

This little girl.. ya know the one I gush over all the time is driving me absolutely bonkers this week! Just being honest here.  It is like she turned two and had this instant attitude change and I am not sure we are going to be getting along very much longer ;)

It is so bad right now that I am afraid to go out in public! We went fall clothes shopping for her the other day and she was nothing short of terrible. I was one of "those" moms and was not even sure what to do about it. I kind of felt like if I took her out of the store then she was getting exactly what she wanted but on the other hand I felt terrible for every shopper in there that was having to listen to her scream. Not to mention all the looks from people who thought that I could not manage my child because she was acting out. UGH..it was so embarassing and so maddening (not sure if that is a word..but it is today..ok!?)

So I think we will stay indoors for a few days and work on our behavior. The wierd part is at church and places they say she is the most laid back easy going child in the room. Now either they lie to me or she has split personality.

I am open to any and all suggestions here. What do you do when your kids act out in public.. whether it be shopping or restaurants (we have had both incidents this past week)? I know she is two and 99.9 percent of this is age appropriate but that does not mean it doesnt need to be corrected..right?

Please help before we go on house arrest!!!!!!!

Weekend snipits

Hey everyone! I hope y'all are having a wonderful long holiday weekend. We certainly enjoyed ours. Derek had to go back to work today but we still had a great weekend.

Saturday we went back to our local botanical gardens. They have a butterfly conservatory this time of year and it is gorgeous!! (yes I forgot my camera! Can you believe such a thing? Dont worry we will be going back..soon!) It is also very interactive for the kiddos and they loved it. E got to help release one of the butterflies after it had emerged from its cacoon. So neat to see and she loved it. After she got to touch one she spent the rest of the time in the conservatory saying "get it get it" She wanted to catch them all ;)

On Saturday evening we headed down to my dads. (more on him in a few days.. but please be praying he is having some fluid retention and other symptoms that are scary. He has several app this week so I will let you know when we find out exactly what is going on) He had a big pot of beef stew on the stove all day and wanted us to come and eat. While visiting I decided to have a little photo shoot with miss E. I have not done her official 2 photo shoot yet but these will do for now ;)

Somebody is a little cheese ball isnt she? Now I am going to have to work on catching natural smiles so I can see her eyes ;) She is a silly girl!

Sunday we went to church and then came home and enjoyed a little R & R. It was a nice way to wrap up a busy but fun weekend.

What did you do this weekend? Hope it was wonderful.

Talk to you soon

Catching up!

I have been such a horrible blogger lately. We have just had sooo much going on that I have not had a minute to stop and process everything much less get it all written out and pics uploaded.

This past week I have been battling bronchitis and now E has the croup! Yesterday I cleaned the house top to bottom to get rid of the germs and then we are off to the doc this morning. Go figure huh!? We are starting on antibiotics for the throat issue and running a humidifier and cuddling for the croup. They did some bloodwork on her as well. Just checking some things out but really hoping she is better soon. A sick baby girl just break my heart.

This weekend we celebrated baby girls birthday! We had a wonderful time!!

The Candy Cake!

She was so excited about all the suckers and candy sitting around.

Luckily they were wrapped in plastic still.. so she would just check them out and then I could regulate how much she ate ;)

Ready to dig in!

Sorry I really didnt get that many great pics. I was trying to get a few shots but not let myself "miss" the party by being stuck behind a camera ya know!? Even though I didnt get a ton of pics the party went great! Everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

Glad I was able to catch up just a bit but now its back to cleaning and cuddling. Really hoping I can get rid of all of this sickness quickly!! My bestie could go into labor any minute and I will devasted not to be able to be up there with them.