Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend

 This weekend was a really great one for Derek, Stratton, and me. We had lots of quality family time and Stratton is finally sleeping in his bed so Derek and I have been able to sleep better at night too. Not to mention it was a three day weekend this weekend for Memorial Day. 

Saturday Derek and I cleaned the basement out since we are trying to get it redone. We found out that we have more than one leak in the basement now so we have more crap to throw away and we have to get more wet moldy carpet out of the basement. I'm so ready to have the basement tiled.

Sunday we decided to go on a hike in the morning before it got too hot to be outside without being next to a pool. We went to Tail of Tears and hiked on the Yellow Trail as my mom calls it. It was only about 2 miles but for a little guy and a smoker it was just long enough to get crabby by the time we got back to the car. 

I got some really great pictures from the hike. Stratton wanted to walk the whole time but it was a little hard because there was LOTS of poison ivy and I was worried about him falling. So, on the wider areas he held Derek's hand and on the narrower areas either I held him or Derek did. It was some really great team work none the less.
 I love these kind of pictures. I thought they were really sweet.
  All smiles for our first water break.
 "Almost there!" Stratton kept saying that the entire walk like he knew where we were going.
 Finally! We made it. The end of this trail really freaks me out because it's a huge drop off. I don't like getting close to the edge of it. It freaks me out.
The whole family with Illinois in the background.
 There was a big barge down the river that Stratton though was really cool.
 Stratton and I say back while Derek enjoyed the view.
 This was a huge night crawler that was slithering across the trail on our way back to the car. It was HUGE!
 Leave it to Derek to get his finger in the picture.

 After the hike at Trail of Tears we made another trip to Jones Heritage Farm for lunch with Derek's dad and step-mom. We met up with them a little bit after we got there but not before I took a couple pictures of the chickens and the horrible turkey.
 The turkey is so mean they have a sign that says that you shouldn't get to close to it. They were right. It's really mean.
 I just love chickens.

 Stratton of course had to play on the play ground.
My father in law Dale with Stratton. He loves his "paw paw Dale."
 My niece Cobie also joined us for lunch. My mother-in-law Lisa was feeding her apple butter. Yum!
 I even ate asparagus for the first time this weekend and LIKED it! Gasp!


Monday (Memorial Day) we spent the morning relaxing and then around lunch we headed over to my mother-in-law and father-in-law's house to go swimming. We had such a great time. My friend Lauren came over for a little bit and swam and then my mom and dad stopped by. Steph, Garrett, and Payne swam with us for a bit and Derek's grandma Mona came by too. Lisa got Stratton a water gun and he had such a good time spaying everyone with it.
 He kept dumping all the water out of the top of it.
 He loved to spray my mom and Lisa.
 Isn't that the cutest diapered butt you've ever seen?
 I unfortunately am white as a ghost so the SPF 55 that I put on didn't help after the 7 hours of being in the sun. Here is the result of my outing. I'm in pain today. I hate the sun.
 Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. 
God bless the men and women that have given their time and lives for our freedom.

I Need a Little Help From My Friends

I am tired of my blog name because of the following:

1. it's unorigional
2. it's boring
3. it's not very fun
4. none of those are me

SO....


Here are a few of my idea

-Keeping Up with the Past
-Stay Tuned...
-Life Less Ordinary
-Catching the Moon

These are the few I thought of but I would really like a few suggestions from you the readers. If you like one of mine let me know if you like a different name better let me know as well. Can't wait to hear everyone's suggestions.

P.S. Don't forget that tonight is Leslie's Swap Meet Party

Friday, May 27, 2011

Game of Life

"Imagine your life is a game in which you are juggling five balls.

The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity.

You're keeping them all in the air.

But one day you will finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball.

If you drop it, it will bounce back.

The other four balls -family, health, friends, and integrity- are made of glass.

If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.

Once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginning of balance in your life."

Friday Confessions!

I confess I have actually been excited to work and do my blog stuff today because I went to bed so early last night (8:30 pm to be exact). I had to work late last night and what started as a slight headache moved into a migraine by the time I got home around 8 last night. But I'm glad my headache is gone and I feel very well rested.

I confess I really want to take Stratton to the zoo this weekend. I think he would like it a lot since he loved the Safari so much this week.

I confess I bought BBQ sunflower seeds this morning and I'm listening to country music all day long just so I can maybe trick the weather to turn into summer time.

I confess I'm trying to drink 2 nalgene bottles worth of water while I'm at work and I hate it because I have to go pee like every 2 hours! For those of you who don't know what a Nalgene bottle is. Here is what they look like.
I confess I am having some MAJOR geocaching withdraws this week. The weather has just been so crappy that I haven't been able to go with Stratton. I'm going this weekend no matter what. 

I confess I bought Lady Gaga's new album Born This Way....and I like it.

I confess I am a little disappointing we didn't have a bigger storm on Wednesday but I'm thankful nothing really bad happened.

I confess I got really tired of the music on my blog playing as soon as I open it so if you really like my music you can push play. I moved it to the top so it's easy to find.

I confess I turn other bloggers music off when I read their blog. Mostly because it's hard to concentrate.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! I'm going to be enjoying my three day weekend.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

5/25/2011 Storm Pictures

We were supposed to have a horrible storm yesterday and it turned out not being as bad as expected. Here are a few pictures from the storm and the beautiful rainbow after the storm was over.


 The "ominous" clouds that were behind my in-laws house.
 Derek being dumb.
 Stratton and Derek snuggling in the fort.
 The awesome fort.
 Rainbow!