Update

It has been a long time since i posted, sorry. Life after Antonio left was challenging. The 15 days he was here were pretty blissful.Honestly the first few weeks after he left i was pretty certain that i would go over the deep end but thankfully God wont let that happen to me and I am feeling much better. I have lots of catching up to do on the blog so I will start with Our trip to The Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA.

Here is the entrance to the Hotel/Water park

This was our room. I didn't realize we were getting kid cabin room i thought it was going to be just 2 double beds and a balcony. I had originally wanted to get one like this for the kids but it was a pricey choice. Needless to say we were pretty excited when we got to the room.

This was is what made it the "kid cabin", inside that little area was a bunk bed and a twin bed with a TV hanging on the wall. So it was like their own little retreat. And notice the windows, the kids had lots of fun sticking their little heads out of them, and playing all sorts of games.

This was the living/sleeping area, on the other side of the room was a gas fireplace, TV, and table. It was a great setup and we really enjoyed it.

Here is Ashlyn on her way to the water park.

and me

and Daddy and Devin doing some push up's

This is picture of a huge wooden bucket that hold 1,000 gallons of water. Every five minutes it dumps and you can stand under it. Devin loved this one, he almost melted cause he missed the one before we left but Daddy came to the rescue and said we could wait for the next one.

Sorry about the focus on this one i was taking it through the big window in the lobby. But this was a big jungle gym climbing "thing" hat was super fun. ON the back side it had two slides you could go down that we a pretty nice size. It was only one at a time so the first time we all went everyone was a bit nervous about it, but the kids totally loved it (should have seen the terror in Devin and Ashlyn eyes on the first finish it was priceless)

This is the stairs to the bigger slides that you had to go down on the inner tubes. There were two slides that two people could go together on a two person tube so we took turns with kids and slides. There was one we could all go down on together but me and that ride did not get along well, me and backwards while going very fast in a tube is not a good thing. And one of the lifeguards was lucky I am a christian women cause i asked him not to put me where i would go backwards ever so politely and he looked at me smiled and then spun me around and did it anyway. I was ticked and very nauseous and had to stick to the wave pool after that.

Here is a rope bridge thing that you could walk across.

In the back of picture is the wave pool, couldn't get a really good view of that one. We liked this alot also. Ashlyn is maturing around water so much, this year she started putting her face in the water and that led to going under and actual swimming. This is huge for her cause she HATED getting her face wet.

Here is a view of the whole park, it was the perfect size water park for the hotel. Big enough to not get boring and small enough to do everything many times.

This is the tower in the lobby and restaurant area. Every hour it did this song chime i think and then it had two shows daily with the tree, Indian girl, moose and several other characters. We caught it our second night, when we were leaving to go back to the room Ashlyn said ever so politely, "that was weird" and i had to agree with her it was quite corny. I did appreciate the way they made the hotel and water park very family oriented though.

Here we are on our way out. We had a great time!!!!

Soon...

Antonio has been gone for 233 days. It has been a blur, poor kids, I will have no memory of the last 3 years. Anyways, he will be coming home in just under 2 weeks for his leave. We are going to visit the Great Wolf Lodge in Virginia. I am excited, for those of you who live close to there, we love you but wont be stopping by this time. I know all of you understand. We also are going to have some time to ourselves, aaaahhhhh we wont know what to do with ourselves, well.....LOL. It will be over night, I am really excited and it will be very refreshing. Well thats all i have for now, i will attach a few picture for your viewing pleasure.

In school that day we were talking about the five senses and we took picture of them pointing to the body parts the we use for each sense. So here are two of them, sorry about the extreme close up of Devin's nose he was right next to me on the chair.

Knitting

A couple of months ago I was trying to learn to knit. I watched a DYI video on the Internet that taught me to cast on and do the knit stitch. So i did that for awhile, but soon decided i wanted to do a project. So I went online and bought a knitting book with much excitement to start my first project. I soon got my books in and found a pattern that I liked and ran off to Micheals to get my supplies. As I stood in the yarn isle searching for the yarn i needed (not a sales person in sight mind you) I couln't find the right yarn. Really i found everything but what i needed. I was very discouraged needless to say. Then i signed Ashlyn up for dance class here in Richlands. I also discovered this great little yarn shop. Then lady is great who works there, she has been knitting since she was 5 years old and is a very wise and patient teacher. So i sat down with her and she showed me more about knitting in 10 minutes then i had learned in the past 3 months. I started with dishcloths/washcloths and then moved on to hats. I am currently on my second hat. Below is a picture of the first hat when i started it. I will post the finished product when i get a minute to take a picture. So i am really loving knitting, next i will learn to do mittens. Enjoy

Busy Busy

Ashlyn has become the busy little bee this year. She is loving soccer and dance class. She started dance in June and is currently on her second week of soccer. She is one of two girls on the soccer team. The other girl is a fellow homeschooler we met at the dance school.
















She gets pretty tired out there running around and being that it's 9:00 am and probably 85 degrees doesn't help matters. The heat seems much more intense this year and the bugs in Richlands would send the ones at our house scurrying in a hurry,eeech.






























Here is my little clown, Devin, He is something else. He has officially entered the whiny three year old stage of life. I didn't have fond memories of it from the first time and this time definitely isn't leaving a positive lasting impression. We are currently trying to be on a school schedule and do all of our stuff daily, we are 1/1 so far. Hopefully we keep it up. Ashlyn is able to sound words out more quickly and even is recognizing words in her environment. I am so proud of her. Devin is starting the random counting that I remember Ashlyn doing, the 1,4,6,9,10. He actually helped me count to 20 in the car the other day, it was just me and him and i was very surprised at all the numbers he knew.

Antonio is due for a visit in about 36 days (not that i am counting or anything) and we are so excited. We plan to visit the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Va and then we are going to also have some time to ourselves overnight. The only time we left our kids overnight was when Devin was born so this will be interesting, I am excited. Take care everyone

My 5 Month Project

When we first decided to move into our new house I knew I wanted the kids to have bunkbeds. Sop after we got moved out of the old house i went and bought new mattresses and a bunkbed. On the way home I was chatting with my friend and she told me she could make bunkbeds for much cheaper. So I went and cancelled my purchase and set forth on my adventure. You woldnt think it would be too much work to sand, stain (4 coats), and polyurithain (2 coats), but let me tell ya it is. So the project finally got finished about 2 or 3 weeks ago, only to be followed by a bat of hand, foot, and mouth virus that whipped throught the whole family. But that is another blog in and of it's self, so here is a picture of our finished beds.

The Adventures of FLower Girl and Spiderman

Ashlyn and Devin or should I say flower girl and spiderman were posing for the camera. I know Devin looks like a little rapper but that was not the pose he was going for. They had so much fun















The rest of the photos are of Ashlyn tying her bunnies ears. I thought it was precious, and it is awesome to see her getting closer to tying her shoes!!
















































THe most beautiful part of this was, it was all her idea, I didnt have to force her to learn, and as you can see by this picture she is so proud of herself. I thank God for allowing me to homeschool.!!!!!!!

Not Much to Talk About...............

I have a few friends who have made some comments on me never blogging (you know who you are VA and MD) so I thought I might really surprise them and blog twice in one week. Watch out now!!!!

We have had a really nice week so far. We've been gone from the house a lot, which is good cause i hate being lonely and with hubby gone there are a lot of the lonley's going on here. Yesterday me and a friend ran into each other in Richlands so we had dinner with them and didn't get home till bed time, perfect for us. And today me and another friend took our kids to the aquarium. It was a lot of fun. We got to see the river otters get fed. The workers fed them live gold fish, celery w/ peanut butter, and pine cones filled with banana chips. One of the otters was real partial to the celery and the other to the fish. It was really funny watching the one swim after the gold fish, aahhh nature (well man made) at its finest. We also got to watch one of the workers clean one of the fish tanks. Of course this was one of the highlights of the day for the kids. I touched lots of sting rays and picked up a lot of inhabited sea shells. There were a lot of staff around to explain things and give lots of info. It was a really nice day that ended w/ some Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Taco Bell for dinner. We were gone all day and it was fabulous. Tomorrow I am going for a facial, I actually meant to cancel it cause i wanted to go to the Chiropractor instead but i spaced it off and am to late to cancel. Maybe next pay check i will get my spine aligned. I know it seems like the priorities are a little backwards but hey i didn't write it down and therefore i spaced it off.

Anyways i will post some pictures of the aquarium when my friend forwards them to me, cause guess what didn't even think to bring the darn camera, aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh save me from the madness LOL.

Until next time folks.....................

Playing Catch Up

The kids were looking extra cute this morning before church so i though i would take pictures. Devin is no longer capable of smiling like a normal child (not that i have ever considered nor wanted them to be classified as normal, LOL) he insists on the funny faces in all pictures.

It has been awhile since i blogged. Getting quiet time on the computer is near impossible unless it is 11:25 pm and i try not to be up this late, but usually fail cause something is needing to be finished. So here i am blogging, aahhh.

But we had a great visit it from great friends this week, it was so great not being the only adult in the house. The kids did good and really enjoyed each other. we are planning a trip up to Virginia to see them for a few days and also to Maryland to visit some other friends who we haven't seen in over four years. I have lots of planning to do between now and then, but i am so excited to get out and be gone for awhile.

What else is new.................oh Devin had a birthday in April so he is now 3 and Ashlyn had 3 loos teeth. I believe she will hang on to them for awhile cause they seem to hurt her a little so she doesn't want them messed with much. Tonight though i convinced her to eat her baby carrots with those front teeth and we wiggled them lots. I am really excited about seeing what she looks like toothless. We are trying to plug away at school, too this last week off of official studies, but i know they still learned a lot more than in they were sitting in a class room all day for 5 days. Any who i should get to bed before 1200 am sneaks up on me. Love ya all

It's Been Awhile....

but we are here, alive and breathing. At times it is hard to keep my head above water and i may even sink for a moment or two, but God always pulls me back up just in time. At this moment as the little ones snore happily in their beds Ican say that we are doing well (and the times i am not, well I probably wont be on this blasted machine blogging anyways..............)

The days are flying around here. We are as settled as one can be at this point, still boxes to unpack but all the necessities are out, it is just daily life that I am trying to handle. I really like the new house, having the school room is wonderful. Not having to use the dining room table really saves me from having to try and get food stains off our books and papers, lol. Although I do want to integrate some educational toys and books into the down stairs so they get used a little bit more. The kids have been spending a lot of time outside, the weather is awesome. Well I am going to go veg in front of the TV for awhile and then hit the hay to get ready for another day. Take care

The Very Best Valentine

Well, I hate to do it, but I have to brag a little about my valentine. I got a call last night from Antonio at 11:00 P.M. which isn't unusual. We chatted a little and then he asked me if i was dressed. I said,"Yes I am dressed, Why." Then He said,"Go put your shoes on and go look outside, and i got a little freaked out (I'm a little skiddish) and said"Why" and the added "Are you out there," He replied, " No baby but I wish I was, just trust me." I said" It's pouring rain out there" and he said "just go out there". So i stepped out on the porch and said "OK, there is nothing out here" and he told me to run my little happy bum to the mailbox. So here i am in all my glory at 11:00 at night in the pouring rain running to the mailbox and i open it up to find three beautiful roses placed there by his "secret friend." He is so wonderful, this has to be the top valentines gift to date. OK I am done now. I hope everyone has a fun day.

Same Old Same Old

Well there is not much new going on here, but I thought I would just write about everyday life. This week has been a pretty good week. I have managed to get up at 7:00 am everyday and feel really good. I started reading Kevin Trudeau's book "Natural Cures they don't want you to know about". I started implementing some of his suggestions and feel as thought they are working well. This week we've also managed to do a little school each day. Ashlyn's brain is growing so much. She can read two of her beginning readers books and she recognizes several words. We were reading the other night and she was able to pick out the words she new from the story. It is great to see progress! She feels so proud when she knows words.

The house is not moving quite as quickly as I want it to, but I have never built a house so I might just be rushing it. The cupboards finally arrived. I stopped in yesterday and they were setting out all over the house, not yet installed. Unfortunately there was water damage on the backs of two. So the realtor is getting that sorted out. Hopefully it wont slow things too much. The good news is the appraiser said that it is worth about $13,000 more that we are paying for it. That was definitely encouraging. Please keep us in your prayers they get it completed correctly and efficiently. Take care

Our New House

This is our new house in Richlands, NC. It's a new construction outside of town. I am really excited to get moved in. We are going over tomorrow to see how everything is going. They are supposed to have the kitchen cabinets installed by tomorrow and the plumber should be out next week. There is alot more space and a bonus room that has already been deemed "The School Room". Ashlyn came to me the other day telling me that she wanted to paint footprints on our walls. An idea popped in my head that we should do that to decorate the school room. The plan so far is that we will do footprints right above the base boards (cause i need all the other wall space) and handprints around the windows. I think it will be really cute. But we probably wont tackle that till daddy comes home. The thought of monitoring children w/ paint all over hands and feet really terrifies me at this time in my life. Anyways just a little glimps into our future.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the family. The one of us all together was from Antonio's christmas party and the one of me and Antonio was when we were hanging out with him before he left (sniffle, sniffle).

Can the Second Time Be A Charm

This is my second attenpt at blogging. It may make my life easier at keeping people updated. But i wont get my hopes up to high. Who knows? But, everyone feel free to comment (I like to know that people are actually reading this stuff) and post. Ta ta for now.