Brandon comes home tomorrow and we can't wait to see him. The week has gone miraculously well and for that I am very thankful. Christopher had one "rude" day, but the rest were filled with lots of "i love you's" and please and thank yous. (YEAH!!) I think it helped that this was one of our busy weeks. Last night I picked up bbq and we had dinner at Wendi's house with her boys and her sweet, sweet friend Joan. It was so fun! Better run b/c we need to get ready for our day and take Christopher to school. Found out last night that Sophie has an ear infection. Thank you Matt for coming to check it out. She's been throwing these awful crying fits at night the last few nights and nothing consoles her. When she would try to fall asleep she would just rock her head back and forth. She'd finally calm down, but I knew something was wrong. Here's to hoping her cold is over soon!

How in the world could I have already lost the instruction manual to my sewing machine? Christopher wanted me to take it out of the box Monday morning and I set everything on the table with it. It's not small. It's basically a large soft cover book! I mailed off the warranty card and then put everything back in the box. Including the foam and plastic bags! So where in the world could it be? I got to the page that tell you how to plug it in and that's as far as I got. I'm starting to panic. I just checked to trash, but I seriously doubt it was thrown away. Maybe this is God's way of telling me that I need to do some serious cleaning up around here. Right now I'm just praying I find it. But until then I'm just going to keep asking... how?????????

Yesterday we got home from MOPS and I let Brick out front while we unloaded the van. I noticed something funny on his face and took over to see Wendi across the street. She told me it was a tick. AAAGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Brandon is gone all week. Pretty much every man I know that lives around here is gone all week and I have no clue how to remove a tick. I know you have to be really careful to get all of it, but since I'd never done it before, I wouldn't know if I had. I was also afraid that if he had one, he probably had more.

I think God knew that I was worried about this, so He took care of it. I found something on the floor a little while later that looked like the tick on his face. It was!!! Nasty, nasty, nasty, nasty!!! I got rid of it. I have no idea how it ended up on the floor, but I was a little bit glad it did b/c it meant that it just fell off. I checked Brick and that same tick was still there. But I was right, there ARE more than one. A little while later I found another one on the floor and there is no tick on his face. I was so grossed out I put Sophie bed, check her blanket for any unusual spots, and then vacuumed. I had no idea if it would even help, but it made me feel better.

Last night as the kids and I were getting ready for bed I found another one on the floor!! Geez! I got rid of it too. Have I mentioned I can't stand bugs? I like to think I'm not high maintenance, but this is one area where I'm the one on the table yelling, "HELP HELP!" But you do what you have to do. Smashing a tick is not on any form of a list of things to do, but if that's what it takes to make sure nobody else gets it, I'll do it. I hope that we don't have any more showing up around here, but at least they are easy to find.

Oh, and my friend Tiffany said that oil can help remove them. It suffocates them and they fall off. Brandon gave Brick a bath before he left on Monday afternoon and the shampoo must have done the trick! Here's to hoping no more ticks!!

This past weekend we went to my parents house at "the lake." I absolutely love it there! It's my most favoritest place on this earth. And it made it even a hundred time better because my husband was able to join the kids and I this time. Usually we head up there without him because his schedule is crazy and it's easier for us to just go somewhere, but not this time.

We got there early evening on Friday and had supper while the kids played. Too busy to eat. Brick was going crazy because he loves being there more than anyone. (He never sleeps that first night b/c he wants to play, play, play!!!) The kids didn't really nap on the way there either so we put them to bed and followed right behind them. Saturday morning I got up with Sophie and passed her off to my mom so I could go back to bed. After a little while I heard Christopher running down the hallway (he adores Grammie with every ounce of his being.) and I just couldn't go back to sleep. I was lying there and then I remembered something, it was my birthday! Have you ever woken up and realized today was your birthday? Yeah, never thought I would forget that either.

I went into the kitchen and found Grammie and two little helpers making yummy biscuits. I had to leave b/c they were going to decorate and I got out of bed too soon. So I went to the other room to read for a while and Christopher came running in with a bag of balloons asking me to help him blow them up. We laughed and played with them. It was great! The day only got better. The weather could not have been more perfect, and it sounded like everyone was experiencing the same thing where they lived. We played outside and the kids got good and muddy, especially Christopher! We went in to clean up and then Brandon and I left to go have a special lunch just the two of us. When we got back, he went to nap. Later the four of us went on an adventure with the dogs and stomped through mud and trees and rocks. It was great! We had homemade chicken pot pie for supper and homemade chocolate cream pie for dessert. It was delicious! We watched more Olympics and then all went to bed.

Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast and headed to Auburn to go see Aunt Jenny and Uncle Trey dedicate Anne Morgan at their church. It was so special to be there! We haven't been able to do this for all of the nieces/nephews, so we were glad to make it hers. She is the sweetest, most well behaved baby I have ever seen! I honestly can't remember her being fussy or crying about anything. My kids love her, just like they love all babies, and Christopher was upset when he found out that she is growing. He wants her to always stay a baby so he can hold her. I told him he can always find a baby to hold and not to worry. Jennifer made a fabulous lunch and cake for everyone. We finally had to hit the road and didn't get home until about 8:00 that night, but it was a great trip and I could not have asked for a better weekend if I planned it myself! Ok, so I guess I kind of did b/c I invited ourselves to the lake and to Auburn, but still!

Oh, and if you are wondering what I got for my birthday, I put all of my money together and bought this:

I'm very excited about owning it and dying to start learning how to use it. But it will have to wait. I have too much on my plate right now to figure it out. I'm planning on spending with with my mom soon so she can finally teach me (again) how to sew. She tried when I was a kid, but at 8 years old you think you'll always be living with your parents so why learn to do something your mom can do anytime you ask? Oh young people! My plan is to be able to do pillows and curtains and simple crafts like that. Hopefully I'll also learn how to make simple jumpers for Sophie too. But I'm setting the bar very low right now.

I think this post has been long enough. I have a few photos from the weekend, but don't have a way to download them right now. Brandon left for a week long conference out of town and took his computer with him. It'll have to wait until he gets back this weekend. I'm out!

Is it bad if your just turned 2 child starts yelling "moon! moon! moon!" as soon as you start a Dreamworks movie? You know, the one with the blue sky and the balloons float up the sky to where the boy is sitting in the moon? Yup, the very second it came on Sophie knew what was to come. We may be saving money by cutting out cable, but I'm thinking we aren't saving the kids brain cells by doing so.

A few weeks ago I borrowed Julie and Julia from a friend. I loved it! (Even C-dawg got into it.) Today Christopher and I watched Enchanted during nap time while I folded some laundry. It made me realize even more how much I love Amy Adams. Isn't she just adorable? She plays a fairytale princess perfectly! I have loved everything I've seen her in, these are just the most recent viewings. And she has a beautiful singing voice on top of it. (James Marsden isn't too shabby himself!) I just turned it on again for the kids to watch. Sophie missed our little matinee, so I thought I'd let her see it.

You see, Sophie loves to sing. Let me rephrase that, I really mean LOVES to sing! Last night Brandon pulled the guitar out and let the kids take turns strumming a tune. Sophie sang "ba, ba, ba, ba, ba...." the whole time she strummed. It was adorable! I got several videos of it, just need to download it. This afternoon she went and got Christopher's guitar out and started singing along with it as well. It's so cute! (Christopher just asked Sophie if she liked the movie so far. How cute! -- She replied with, "ba ba")

You'd have to be living under a rock to not know who she is or at least recognize her. I just love when someone with great talent does well. On a completely different note, I'm off to load the dishwasher and pretend my voice is as cute as hers. Don't you hate the way you sound on your own voice mail? I do. That's the only reason I'm not famous. Right? That and the absolute shaking fear I have of being on camera or in front of a crowd of 2+ people. My man just called and is on his way home. Yipee!!!

I miss cable. I miss it terribly right now! The Winter Olympics are on and they are my favorite. I am DYING because I can't watch them! I love the crazy characters that come out and compete. Have you ever noticed the difference between the summer and winter Olympians? Summer athletes are all clean cut, strict and ivy league looking. Winter athletes come out with crazy hair, rockin' out and ready to party. I may look more like a summer Olympian, but I LOVE to watch the winter ones more. Probably because I'm nothing like them. I like safe and secure with both feet on the warm ground. They are balls out. (sorry!)

Now if I could pick a sport (don't let the fact I haven't exercised in 4 years fool you) it would be speed skating. What a rush!!!! It reminds me of those roller skating parties we used to go to and the races you would have, one of the very few things as a kid I could win. (Never been much of an athlete, just lots of energy.) You go as fast as you possibly can around a loop and you just might slip and slide crashing into a wall. Call me crazy, but that sounds awesome!!!!!! Only because the walls are padded. The one thing I always think about when watching them if how close their skates are to the opponent's fingers. I think I would wear thick mesh gloves if I did it.

We've tried to find live links of the Olympics online, but haven't had any luck. So if you know where I can find it, let me know. I'll watch pretty much anything, but curling. No offense to anyone who curls, but it always makes me think I'm watching the North Dakota games.

I've never been a big Valentine's Day person. Never really saw why we had to go and buy lots of stuff and flowers and food to show someone we loved them. I thought that was what anniversaries were for. But now that I have kids I'm getting into it! Maybe it's b/c my birthday is 6 days after the overpriced holiday and so I've never told Brandon we had to celebrate V'day, we can wait until my birthday to celebrate something.

I remember as a kid my mom having a little gift for us on the counter at breakfast and making heart shaped pancakes. I loved it! Maybe that's why I was confused. Everywhere you went they made it a romantic holiday, but I was shown at home that you told everyone you love, "I love you!"

So, I got the kids a little treat and was going to make a special breakfast, but they just want the rest of the chocolate chip banana bread we made earlier this week and goldfish. I think they get it. Brandon is on call (again!) so I'm hoping that it stays sunny and the kids and I can have a fun afternoon. I'm looking forward to a great sermon at church and S.S. this morning.

Oh, and we had probably one of the best dates we've had in a long time. You know how sometimes you get out and all you can think to talk about is the kids? We talked about everything but the kids! Then did some window shopping. It was fun! Hope you have a great day!