It's Time to Check In!

Wow! I have not posted in sooooo long! Are you like me? I think each day, "I need to post!" But somehow, I just rarely find the time to sit and do it! The next few days don't promise to be any less busy, so I guess I will take a few moments to give a brief explanation of what's been keeping me out of the blogosphere!

Paul, Tim's brother who was our best man, is coming over the weekend to see us. We have not seen him since about June 2007! This, of course, means non-stop cleaning for the next 48 hours.

Paul

We just recently celebrated Hannah's 5th Birthday! Bad, bad Mommy did not even get a post up for little Hannah Bee! (Her real middle name is 'Faith!') We took her to the Nashville Zoo and had a great day with family. I got a lot of super photos! We had quite a laugh out of the giraffe, who got my vote for funniest animal of the day! We enjoyed the enormous playland they had there, too. The slide was about 3 stories tall! Tim lured me up to the top on the premise of showimg me the view and then shoved me into the opening of the giant winding slide! I thought we would be calling E.M.S. to extract me from that contraption for sure! I nearly got stuck in one of the bends, and if I had, that would have been the end of me, as I am so claustrophobic! I surely would have had a heart attack in there! Can you see them using the jaws of life on a slide?

Micah and the Elephant

Scary three-story-tall fort!Scary slide of death (well, to everyone but Sam!)
My crew leaving the zoo!

My precious Hannah-Bee on her 5th!

Hannah also had a separate day of joint celebrating with her cousin Lauren who turned 4 just a few days before Hannah turned 5! The usual trek to Chuck E. Cheese's and Build-A-Bear was again the order of this day. Sane people should not try to do C-E-C and B-A-B in the same day!

Lauren and Hannah

Hannah with her newest Build-A-Bear, which she named Hannah MonHannah

We celebrated Halloween with "Cousins United," the inseparable group of five cousins that are like 5 peas in a pod. Sarah and Hannah love every chance they get to be with their cousins Kelsey, Ben, and Lauren. We traveled to Smyrna Halloween night and enjoyed being with Steph and her parents and going Trick-or-Treating there.

Speaking of Cousins United, we enjoyed our day at the Fair with them as well! On this particular day, there was a 6th pea in the pod, as Micah joined us for Home School Day at the Fair!

5 Peas in a Pod

We celebrated my dad's cousin Ray's 70th birthday this last month, too. All of my family came together, and we gave a surprise party for a neat man who loves the Lord a lot! He would not like me to tell it, but he helped my Daniel out when he was first getting out on his own by purchasing him a laptop. It helped him get all the way through the first couple of years of college before Dan wore it out. Ray's son Rick is now battling melanoma. Ray just learned two days after we celebrated that Rick has relapsed. Prayers go out to this wonderfully sweet and caring family!

Ray is at the end of the table, between the black balloons.

We went to my cousin Abby's wedding. The pictures I made did not turn out so well. I cannot wait to see hers! While there, I ran into several folks I have not seen in a while! Some were old friends, and some were family!

Abby and Stephen


Daddy holds Hannah at the wedding

Sarah at the wedding


In other news, we have been following Daniel's Intramural Football team's games. It has been way too cold to go to most of them, because they mostly are played late at night. It has been the coldest November in TN that I can recall in years! They made it into the semi-finals but got defeated Monday night.


My Mom and Dad's beloved chihuahua is due to give birth on or about Thanksgiving! It should make for an interesting Turkey Day!

Dad and "Babe"

Last but not least, we got our bi-annual dental cleanings last week. The only way I can get the kids to go without whining is to promise a McDonald's trip afterwards if they go quietly! Sam picked the three smaller kids up and took them on down to McD's while the Doc finished up on me.

This was the hysterical sight I saw when I got there. I never dreamed Sam would go with them into the deep, dark recesses of Playland! I should have remembered from the zoo trip how he loves slides. Check out the boots in the McDonald's shoekeeper! :) Micah's tennis shoes are even approaching "too big for this playland" status. Now sing with me...."One of these things just doesn't belong here...three of these things are kind of the same...."

Hope you are smiling today!