Awesome Weekend!

 Oh my goodness, what a fantastic weekend!  Jeremy and I were able to get down to the Lake of the Ozarks to see my brother and his fiance, Joyce, for her 40th birthday! Sam had recently opened a new bar and grill right on "The Strip" in Osage Beach.  It is right where we would rent jet skis at the Bagnell Dam.  Prime location!!  It's a really big, super nice place called Beavers at the Dam.  They had an awesome band playing that night too!  When we first got there, everyone was gone on the party bus.  Sam also owns three party buses.  So, we hung out for about an hour waiting for them to get back.  It was so relaxing and the sun was setting, the band was warming up, and there was a breeze coming off the lake.  We got to watch the parasailing thing too which I think we are going to do the next time we are there. When the party bus arrived, it was on!  We danced the night away.  We met a bunch of new people that were so friendly and fun!  Happy birthday, Joyce!

We pushed about 5 or 6 tables together for the whole lot of us to hang out at. This is still pretty early in the night.  Just after dark.  We had some great food and the highlight for me was dancing with Jeremy to Purple Rain!! 

Later in the night......everyone was taking a breather from dancing and these three fools....my brother, my nephew Andrew, Jeremy, and my niece Kaylee....started doing these hilarious dances!! LOVED it!!  Andrew was cracking us up the whole night!  We had a great time getting to know everyone and catching up with Sam and fam!

This is the view from the boat dock.  I should have gotten a picture down here earlier.  Funny story though.  Jeremy and I walked down here to go get the picture by ourselves.  There were a few boats still docked at this point (I think it was somewhere around midnight-ish).  I snapped a few pictures and we started walking back up the dock.  Then a guy came walking toward us and stopped us.  He told us that my brother had sent him to check on us because we already had enough kids!! BAHahahaha!!  Anyway, then we all took the green party bus back to Sam's house on the lake.  Very nice.  His boat dock is like double the size and has a ton of cool stuff.  Pretty sure I could live there, no problem! :) Much nicer than the one we rented on the lake last year.  We all decided to take a dip in the pool when we got back.  So much fun!  I lost a contact in the water and had weirdo vision the rest of the night though, haha!  Finally we all went to bed.
We woke up the next morning and Sam offered to let us take the jet skis out. WOOT!  He has 6 of them!  Three were in the repair shop to get fixed.  Jeremy and I took off one one that was freaking FAST.  I was apprehensive at first because it was actually pretty choppy.  There was some clouds and wind but still warm and perfect.  We played for awhile but Sam had a flight to catch to Denver and we had to get home to rescue the Grandmas from the kids, lol!
Sam offered us his house or his condo for Jeremy's birthday weekend!!  He said we could do all kinds of fun stuff!  Jeremy was pretty stoked I think because we were both kind of OBSESSED with the jet skis by the time we were done.  We want one bad!!  Now, just to figure out who to take with us for the weekend.  It was an exhausting weekend but such a good one!  We both agreed we haven't had that much fun in a long time!  August is almost here and the chaos will soon multiply! Agh!

Right when we got back we went to Jeremy's parents house for his brother's birthday dinner.  We ate some good food (super yummy potatoes) and hung out for a bit.  Cullen and Eden were whiny little buggers and my brain was fried.  I did get a couple of bites of banana pie though!! mmmmmm, good.  Happy Birthday, Tyson!
We came home.  I didn't want the weekend to be over  but, it was.  Just happy it happened.  Loved it all.  :)

Pool and Paint

 I love this girlie!  She cracks me up every single day.  

 Cullen and Eden both love having their pictures taken.  Every time a camera comes out Eden says "cheese" and Cullen says "cheeseburgers!"

Yesterday was awesome compared to the heat we have been having.  So we were outside a lot and tried to enjoy it while we had it.  All the kids were in and out of the pool, water table, and hose all day long.  Somehow, I squeezed in two coats of paint in my bedroom on the purple wall!  It is amazing.  The purple is so dark and lovely.  At night it looks black.  During the day it looks luscious! 

Crock Pot Freezer Meals

 Ever feel like not cooking?  Even if you love to cook there are still the days that there is no extra time for meal preparation.  Well, my August is looking up already!  One day I decided to do the cooking for 12!  I have made a plethora of freezer to crock pot meals that will make supper time a breeze!!  So darn excited about this!

 I made 12 meals that include these:

• 2 Hawaiian Chicken- served with rice
• 2 Garlic Honey Chicken
• 2 Teriyaki Pork Chops
• 2 Beef Stew
• 2 Chicken Fajitas
• 2 Cincinnati "Skyline" Chili

I am using untested recipes though....that is the only thing that is kinda frightening, haha!  As we use them though I will rate them and let everyone know.  Maybe even share the recipes.  All, I know is that is was easy peasy to toss these together and it should be even easier to dump it in the crock pot and eat it.  Yes!  I cannot wait to make more!!

Terry the Tomato Plant

This is my hanging tomato plant.  It's really cool and it grows lots of tomaters.  I have it hanging on my front porch.  Pretty cool idea really.  So far we have had BLT's a couple of times this year but, no tomatoes have been eaten from this upside down plant yet.  Right now there are about 12 tomatoes on it and they will not turn red.  I might just make fried green tomatoes.  Ultimately I bought it so I could can some tomato products.  Come on tomatoes...turn red, dang it!

Sookie.....Eric????

This is Sookie.  Or Eric Northman.  Or Quinn.  Or Freakshow.  Or Frank.  When we first got the cat we named "her" Sookie.  Soon afterwards we found a couple of things that "she" shouldn't have so I started calling "her" Eric Northman.  Jeremy said that we couldn't call "him" Eric Northman because no one wants to say it.  I said that we can't call a he-cat a girlie name.  Then I suggested Quinn.  Following along the same True Blood theme.  No one can remember that so, then we started calling it Freakshow because he freaks out all the time and attacks us.  The other night the name Frank was suggested in loo of Freakshow.  hmmm.  Still don't know what the cat's name will end up being but she-he is now three months old and we can take "it" into the vet for shots and the official sex and we will have to have a name then for the paperwork so....I guess we will see! haha! This cat is pretty cool though.  And extremely llooonngg.  She-he will make a super duper halloween black cat with the back all arched and stuff! 

Ted's New Home

I did the research to find the perfect hamster cage and ordered online.  It came a few days ago and the quality difference was apparent right away.  It went together super easy and the hamster seems to love it too.  I think we might expand it a bit with some tunnels and other doo-hickies but for now it is good.  And escape proof, haha!

Cute People

Sometimes when we get Eden out of her bed in the morning she will have her pants on her head like a drunken sailor.  Other times she will put her shirt to use as an experiment in fashion design like she did in this photo.  She is ahead of her time, lol!  Of course Asher had to pose with her like the good big brother that he is and you can see Eden saying "cheese!"

Asher Looses A Tooth

Asher came to me the other day and said that his tooth was loose.  He was wiggling it all around and I said to just keep working at it and it would fall out eventually.  He said okay.  Then he came to me a little bit later and asked if we had any apples.  I said yes and got him one.  Then a minute or two after that he came to me with a tiny, bloody tooth!  I didn't put two and two together for some reason with the whole apple/tooth thing, lol!  But, he sure did!  He was pretty excited by the whole thing so we took a picture!  He put it under his pillow and the tooth fairy brought him $2. 

Recap of Tuesday....So Far

Today has been good, mostly.  Other than dealing with STUPID insurance!  Insurance companies might be the most annoying and useless waste of space in America.  Well, it's between that and real estate.  Seriously, neither one of them make a lick of sense, and what's worse is that people are just like, yep, that's how it goes, der!  I just can't seem to wrap my sane, intelligent mind around it.  Oh well, I digress.
I have been making a point to enjoy each one of the kids every single day.  Sometimes it is hard to get one on one time with each one of them since there are so many running around.  I always felt like it had to be something really cool or time consuming but, then I had an epiphany.  It doesn't have to much of anything at all to make them feel special or to enjoy their unique personalities.  Sometimes it's just playing a quick card game or board game with them.  Sometimes it's just talking to them one on one about things we both enjoy.  Or doing a real quick little project with them.  Like today, Asher helped me set up the new hamster cage.  He really enjoyed it and loved announcing it to his brothers when we took it upstairs. 
We are thinking about taking some of them to the Adams County Fair this week.  Also, I think Jeremy and I will be headed to my brother's house on the lake at Osage Beach this weekend.  They have invited us down for Joyce's 40th birthday.  I have been wanting to check out his new house and his new bar and grill called Beavers at the Dam!  It should be a ton of fun and take our minds off things. 
Today the kids played with the hose and pool and water table.  They had a ton of fun and were really well behaved while doing it.  I can't believe that August is quickly approaching and the busiest time of year for our family.  I don't want to do it. Nope.  I don't feel ready and we have so many decisions to make in such a short amount of time, AGH!  I don't want to think about it. 

Cullen

I was dancing around the room singing "boom shak-a-lack-a-shak-a-laka--chicka boom"  and Cullen goes "Stop, Mom!  No, Shak-a-laka-Boom!"  Silly boy!

Bahahaha!

To all my stupid friends out there....and let's face it, there are a lot!!  lol! 

Paint colors

We have been painting our house as I have already mentioned.  In the bathroom we are covering up dark brown walls that had a lighthouse border and white trim.  We are making them Jekyll Crane Cottage Yellow walls, keeping the border because it will actually match now and repainting the trim white. Also, we are going to be refinishing the bathroom vanity.
Then in Tristan and Asher's room they had a dinosaur border with tan walls.  Also holes int he plaster galore!  We are repairing the holes, and painting the walls a color called lemongrass.  It is a very pale greenish yellow.  It matches the border still so that will stay up.  Not really sure I would have picked the colors I did but, I did it so the house would be more neutral shades for selling it. 
Then on Sunday I decided I don't care what other people want I am doing colors I want in my house as long as I am in it.  So, for our bedroom that has three yellow/gold walls and one chocolate brown wall I bought clary sage (green) for three walls and a dark purple that I can't remember the name of for the fourth wall.  The trim throughout the whole house will be white.  That's it, just white. 

Our Slip-N-Slide

 Due to the heat wave/drought, it has been extra hard to play outside this summer.  Who knew we could have so much fun with a tarp and a tiny kiddie pool!!?!?!  But, boy did we ever!!
Earlier in the summer I had spent $10 at Dollar General for a slip-n-slide that the kids used once.  It barley worked.  It was way too narrow and kept folding up, the water wouldn't stay on it so it wasn't slippery enough and it was way too short.  So down the drain went $10.  Great.  But, then when I started getting my food service tent out to set up my yard sale I also found my tarp!  So me and the boys drug it out, and dug around to find some tent stakes and we had our slip-n-slide.  Now, what to make it "slip"?  I thought of soap immediately but worried about them getting it in their eyes.  Then I thought Crisco.  hmmm.  Got on the internet real quick and found out other people had used baby shampoo! DUH!  So I sent Tristan and Cedric to Dollar General to get some generic baby shampoo.  Yes, I have some in the house but it is Arbonne baby shampoo and I am NOT dumping that on a tarp! haha!  They came back and we starting slipping and sailing away!  I did add a little Canola Oil actually and whooo-eee did that stuff slip!! LOL!  So much fun!  The downside is that it takes A LOT of baby shampoo.  We went through three bottles on this day alone.  But, so worth it.  We got way more fun out of the tarp the the actual slip-n-slide I had bought initially. 

 Liam had to show me his going under water skills and wanted me to document it all.
 So I obliged. 

 He flies like a bird while swimming!

 They started getting crazy in the pool!  Wrestling and monkeying around.  I hope they grow up to be great buddies like I catch them doing from time to time!

It was a great day!  And totally worth not getting much else done!! LOL!

Yo Gabba Gabba

Eden's favorite show is Yo Gabba Gabba.  If you have never had the pleasure of seeing this show, let me tell you, you are missing out.  At it's helm is DJ Lance Rock and it takes place in Gabba Land.  There is Tutti, Foofa, Plex, Broby, and Moono.  They sing and dance and learn great life lessons such as: Don't Bite Your Friends, You Can't Always Get What You Want, and There is A Party In My Tummy!  It's actually the best show ever!  Whenever it comes on she is fascinated!  She also dances, which I LOVE!!!!

Clever Little Thing

Oh and the dang hamster was missing the whole weekend!!  He has become a master escape artist.  When Cedric found him today I walked directly to the computer and ordered a new cage.  We'll see if the little houdini can beat that one! ha!

The Weekend

This weekend has been weird to say the least.  I felt like one of those girls on some chick flick that has a super depressing day and you see her all slobbenly dressed in sweats and t-shirt, hair all askew, surrounded by buckets of ice cream and cookies and chips and other things that should not be consumed!  I had a real life movie moment.  Anyway, it all started with the whole "Movie Massacre" thing.  I CANNOT stop watching.  All it does it increase my paranoia and make me a bumbling, crying mess.  But, I am riveted and can't wait to find out what this guys excuse is. 
Then I woke up Saturday morning and was going to have my yard sale again but, I knew that they needed help at the condos. They had a crap ton of rooms to turn around and needed some extra hands. So, being the great person that I am, decided to help out....and take Tristan with me.  I hate going into work there.  It isn't worth it.  I don't need it.  It is irritating.  So, I went and the new girls there were talking crap about my mother.  So, I went and told her that she needed to stop being annoying or whatever.  Then I went back to another room and was cleaning all by myself.  Next thing I know there was some kind of "team meeting" in room 9.  I ran to room nine.  My mom is there with the girls asking what she can do differently.  then they all turn on me and say they have been doing fine all week and I was the problem!  WTF!?!?  I WAS THERE TO HELP THEM!! In a completely different room all by myself I might add.  I told them all if they wanted to do the rooms themselves then they could.  I also said a few other things I will not be posting to my blog. :) Tristan and I left and went home.  It's gonna take a lot for me to want to help them out ever again. 
When we got home it was too late to start our yard sale, I didn't have it all ready anyway.  Dumb.  I was also realizing just how long it is going to take to get this house all painted and trimmed, and cabinets fixed, etc. etc. until we can show the house.  It is daunting and overwhelming.  We started loading kids up to go to Grandma's so we could finish up the painting we had already started.
When we got to Nauvoo, we drove past the house that we were going to put an offer in on and it was flipping SOLD!  FML!  For real, I was in a bad mood.  And it just kept getting worse.  Ever feel like the world is out to get you!?!?  Anyway, we left and got home to do some plaster repairs and realized that it was a much bigger task than we thought.  It took forever to dry.  And I was wallowing in my misery....in a giant funk.  Anyway, we did a third coat on Asher and Tristan's walls....except the one with the plaster and then ran out of paint.  Crap a dog! 
I finally called it a night in hopes that today would be better.  It is.....slightly.  Yesterday, I was ready to give up on buying a new house and was just ready to expand this one or something but, I have been more positive today.  There are other houses and routes to get there.  This morning we made a trip to Lowe's and bought a crap ton more paint.  We found one of the colors for our bedroom walls in "mis-tint" section and got each gallon for $5!!  Can't beat that!  So, I will end with a funny!  I thought this e-card was freaking hilarious and I needed a good laugh today!! 

Cheese

I thought I really didn't care for swiss cheese.  But, then I ate baby swiss.  Mmmmmm.

Words

I have been thinking about a lot of dumb things today.  Like Christmas.  Why am I thinking about Christmas in July?!?!  Who knows!! I am feeling all kinds of anxious and weird today and worrying about everything under the sun.  And the sun is hot today!  I haven't gotten around to showering today either.  And how in the heck am I going to paint the bathroom ceiling!?!?!? AGH!  I want to hire someone to do it for me! lol! So much is out of my control and it freaks me out!
So, Cedric got to go to Quincy today with his friend Joshua Sanderson.  He was so excited!  Tristan is working at the condos and received his first pay check yesterday.  He was thrilled to say the least! :)  Now, the other boys want to get jobs too and I said that they do have jobs.  They are called chores.  Yep.  Liam got to spend the day with Dad at work today!  It's something he loves.  Jeremy wants all the boys to work at the store with him eventually.  I think that is a great idea.  I tried to lay down with Cullen earlier in the day while Eden was napping.  We laid in my bed and I dozed off.  I guess he took that as his cue to leave and go wake Eden up instead.  *sigh*  Oh well, I tried.  I haven't laid down for a nap during the day since I was pregnant.  It felt good, dang it.  For the short time it lasted.  Oh wait, I lied.  I took a nap with the kids after swim lessons a couple of days.  Huh, well forgot about that. 
Last night Jeremy and I went to get paint for the bathroom and for Asher and Tristan's room.  We got paint samples for other rooms.  There is so much to do!  It's overwhelming.  And dumb.
Cullen has a screech that is worse than nails on a chalkboard....or crunching snow.  It really needs to stop.  Especially today. 

Good Stuff

Just Some Thoughts

We are getting ready to list our house which is gonna be something completely new for us!  I'm kinda excited and a lot apprehensive because we all know that I am not good at stress and other such nonsense.  Funny, because Jeremy and I were one of the lucky ones that got into the stress reduction and relaxation class at Western!! LMAO!  Yes, it is a really class for actual credits!!  Anyway, it is a really good thing that we have such supportive and loving family all around us.  We need their help and they freely give it which is awesome on their part.  I do love family....even if it is stressful sometimes!! :)  I couldn't do it without them!!

Eden will have full conversations with me ALL the time.  And she mimicks every thing I do.  If I tuck my hair behind my ear, she will tuck her hair behind her ear.  If I dance, she will do the exact same dance move!  It's so amazing!  The boys would do that to an extent but never like this!!! Is it because we are both girls!  Yep!  HAHAHA!

For My Hubby

Jeremy and I have the most unique, fun, and special marriages that I know of.  It's something we both know how to do right.  We should give classes on how to have the best marriage on the planet! :)

Post #8,345,649

Okay, so many,many cool things are happening to me and my fam!  I am going to start posting pictures of my house and info about it in hopes of people passing it along and getting my house sold!! Anybody want to move to Carthage!?!?!?  We NEED to sell in super quick.....we are VERY motivated sellers! 
We had a yard sale this weekend and will have another this weekend and another if it so requires!!!  I will also post pictures of stuff we have for sale. 
This weekend a few really cool things happened.  I was sitting on my deck at night with Jeremy and I turned to him and said....we should try to look for the space station.  I had always wanted to see it.  And guess what!?!?  I went by RIGHT THEN!!!  Freaking awesome!!  Now, I'm gonna be watching for it all the time! lol!  Then a shooting star went by too!  Again last night, I was watching for the space station and I saw the best meteor I have EVER seen!  Big long tail, right over my head, nice arc in sky!  It was beautiful! 

Jeremy made the picture bigger for me!  Thank you! 

Forgot What I Was doing!

 Last weekend, Jeremy and I had a TON to do.  And we had told the kids that we would take them to the Landing water park if they did good at swimming lessons.  They all did good but in the week or two before we went, they did awful with chores and attitude.  So many times we threaten to take stuff away or actually take stuff away and then when it comes down to actually doing it, we let them because we already had it planned or paid for or something like that.  Well, they are on to our lenient ways and tried to get by with all kinds of stuff.  Finally, we took going to the water park away from them and we stuck by our guns even though I really, really wanted to go anyway.
So, Jeremy and I decided to go get our stuff done and use the babysitting we already had lined up.  We went to Quincy and got stuff to work on our house, did some shopping, ate, ran errands, you know, all that annoying and boring stuff.  Then as we were leaving Quincy, on a whim, we decided to have a spontaneous night to ourselves at the Stoneycreek Inn.  I was pretty excited because I already had my swim bag in the car from being packed for the Landing and the hotel is supposed to have a pretty cool swim/jacuzzi area.  We checked in (they only had 2 rooms left) and went to the pool.  They had one of the half indoor/half outdoor pools.  I've been to some in the past that are flipping awesome, so I was pretty stoked.  Only to get there and realize that it is tiny and stupid.  The water was FREEZING (In 106 degree temps, wth?) and it was only 3 and 4 feet deep.  The little plastic thing to separate the indoor from the outdoor was the wrong kind and was horrible to try to get through.  So we went to the jacuzzi.  Have to say that the size of it was great!  But, that's about it.  They said that there was a poolside bar...there wasn't.  There was a beer stand,yuck.  With a tiny round table with 4 chairs around it.
The rooms were very clean and orderly but WAY tiny.  The decor is all in woods, logs, and moose.  Literally looks like they took a whole ski/western lodge and stuck it behind Steak n Shake.  Weird.  Really weird.  We just didn't get why people rave about it so much.  It's just a ho-hum average hotel.  Very disappointing.  But, I guess we are hotel snobs, lol.  Oh well.  We did have a really good nights sleep and got to finish up the rest of the stuff we had to do in Quincy the next morning instead of driving all the way back to Quincy again.  Sweet!
On the way home we passed this cool little windmill....I love windmills!  I don't know if you can read the sign of the little church that we stopped and took a picture of but it had us both laughing!!! Bahahaha!

Fourth of July 2012

 We had a good Fourth of July!  We had our huge bag of fireworks left over from last year that we forgot to take to the vacation house on the lake.  I was hoping they were not all ruined but we only had one dud! woot! 
Jeremy took the day off (job perk!)  Cedric asked me the other day who paid Dad?  I told him, no one did...that Dad paid himself.  And he said well who is Dad's boss?  I said no one.  Dad IS the boss.  And he said, so Dad can have the day off whenever he wants?  And I was like, Yes, he is the owner Cedric.  Then he was like...He should take every day off!!  LMAO!  LOVE it!
 In the morning we went to the Carthage Fourth of July parade.  It was fun! Every year it gets bigger and bigger.  They kids were really good and had a good time!  As is Jeremy and I.  Then we came home and hung out.  We had Jeremy's parents over for a cookout and fireworks.......

 Cedric was in charge of the camera and got some cool shots!  These kids make some pretty funny faces!

 Eden was just not sure what to think of the fireworks.....she was very timid.  Which I said just goes to show you that women have sense and men don't, lol!

 We had a lot of good food, drinks, and fun!  Tristan had went to The Landing waterpark and got home in time for fireworks too! Yay!

 Eden Rose kept stealing Grandma Kelley's soda.  She's just too darn cute....and she knows it!

So, Asher decided to light about ten sparklers at once and nearly caught himself on fire!!! Scared the crap right out of me!  We tossed him in the pool real quick and he was fine but he swallowed a bunch of the smoke and had a bad taste in his mouth.  Right after that I went to the car to get a paci and found out someone had locked the car with the keys IN it AGAIN!!! AGH!  So, the evening had a little sour note then.  Jeremy's parents left and we started getting the kids ready for bed.  Just then the Carthage fireworks started going off.  We went outside and realized that we could see them perfectly from our driveway.  We took the boys out and let them sit on the hood of the Expedition and had a REALLY GOOD moment.  Everyone was content and happy.  I told them that these little moments were what it was all about and they all agreed.  I told them how much I loved them and Happy Fourth of July and they all said it back to me sincerely!  LOVED IT!  The Fourth is one of my favorite holidays.  For reals.  I love it!  I love this country we live in!  And who doesn't love fireworks?!?!