Where in the world have we been!!

We have had a busy last few weeks at our house. Sarah Katherine and I have tried to stay busy while Randy was at work. It always seems to make the month go by faster.

Just before Randy went back to work we were able to take Sarah Katherine to her first trip to the zoo. We all had a great time getting to see all the different animals.

We have also been doing swimming lessons. Sarah Katherine took lessons again this year with Anna Bay McCord. Sarah Katherine loves being in the water. Sometimes I think that this is a good thing that she isn't afraid, but at the same time it scares me to death. She did really well again this year. I don't know if you would really call it swimming, but she would jump off the steps, go under water, and moved to where Anna Bay was standing. She has the kicking her legs down and even moving her arms. It is just sometimes she doesn't do it together. We will get there. We just need more time in the pool. Thank goodness Susu has her pool.

Just want to leave you with this picture. Sarah Katherine has now started trying to dress herself. I was working in my office the other day and she came in with this on. I hope that her sense of style improves.

Happy Birthday SuSu!!!

Tuesday was Susan's Birthday! Mother and I decided that we would have a dinner for her. Once Sarah Katherine got wind of it she had to help. She told us we had to have a Mickey Mouse Party. We went to Walmart and got all of the Mickey Mouse party stuff. We had Mickey Mouse plates, cups, napkins, Mickey ears and of course a Mickey Mouse candle. Everybody were good sports and wore their ears. It was a lot of fun. The best part....the Strawberry Cake from Tabby D's.

Me And My Friend

Monday Tony, Leigh, and Nataleigh Brown came to see us and we had a good time playing. We went to the pool and played until Sarah Katherine had to take a nap. The pool wears Sarah Katherine out and she sleeps great after a swim. Nataleigh doesn't nap much, so she got the whole experience. After swimming, we cleaned up and went back to Baytown to play our odds there. Sarah Katherine and Nataleigh jumped on the Eurobungy and had a good time.We had icecream and then they played in the playground while we chased them around for about 45 minutes. It's tough keeping up with kids in a playground. Finally we all went to Rum Runners and had Dinner. Jennifer's Mom and Dad joined us there and we had a good meal. Sarah Katherine sang and danced for us during dinner.

Life at the beach

Well we came to the beach last Friday and have been having so much fun we haven't updated the whole time. We have been having a great time in Destin this week. It was nasty Friday when we got here and all day Saturday, but cleared up the remainder of the week. Saturday we took Sarah Katherine to stay with Mary and Laura for the day while it was raining and we took a day off and saw 2 movies at the Rave. We can't watch a movie that we both want to see, so when we go to a movie it has to be 2. One for each of us. We saw Wolverine and Ghost of Girlfriends Past. Both were pretty good. Kiley, Paul, Dalton, & Keaton came to play with us on Sunday and we had a great time. We went to Baytown at the Villiage in Sandestin and the kids had fun jumping on the 'Eurobungy'.

Dalton went through the Ropes course and Sarah Katherine rode across the Zipline. The Zipline goes from one tower that stands about 60' tall and goes across a small lake to another tower and back. Sarah Katherine kept watching the other children go across on the cable and kept wanting to swing across. She is a dare devil! She went across to the first tower and got upset when her Mama or Daddy wasn't there to catch her. Needless to say, she didn't come back across. She said she would have come back across if we would have been on the other side. It must be great to be a kid and be amazed by everything you see. Sarah Katherine gets excited about everything she sees and wants to try it. She would fly to the moon if we had the money.

My First Fishing Trip

We had a great afternoon playing at Ginger and Jimmy Lowman's today. Gary and Barbara came up for the weekend and we had a great time fishing a cooking. Sarah Katherine was excited to get to go on her first fishing trip and she caught 2 fish! She was geared up with her Princess fishing pole and her too cool shades. A girl has to be fashionable whatever the sport.


After Sarah Katherine wore the fish out, we cooked on the grill and listened to a little Frank Sinatra and Conway Twitty. Sarah Katherine taught everyone how to dance.

Sarah Katherine's First Garden

Last month we planted Sarah Katherine's first garden.

She planted a cherry tomato plant, several carrot seeds she got from the Master Gardens Sale, and some pepper plants. Sarah Katherine was excited to find she had some cherry tomatoes ready to pick. She picked them and ate them on the spot. She even tried to pick and eat some green ones, but she quickly figured out the green ones weren't as tasty as the ripe ones. Hopefully she will help in our flower beds when she gets a little bigger.

Where we have been....

Yes! I know it has been a really long time since I last blogged. I have tried on a couple of different occasions to update this and every time there was either a problem with blogspot or my internet. Maybe this time it will work.

Here is a brief run down on everything that has been going on. First was Easter. We had a great time and Randy was even home. Sarah Katherine had her party at Mother's Day Out, we went to Niceville to be with the "Lanes," had lunch at home and of course we searched for eggs. Sarah Katherine had a ball with it all.

Randy left the day after Easter going back to work. He is now in Australia. He loves it. I think he just wishes he had more time to sight see. We never really thought we would get use to the 28 days home and 28 days gone. But apparently we did. We just didn't feel like he was home the two weeks he was home. Sarah Katherine and I adjusted again. And now he is home and is keeping us busy.

We got to visit with Jeff, who we hadn't seen in a year. It was nice to get to see him. He only has a few months left in the Navy. We are hoping he will make his home much closer than Texas.

Randy planned a Masonic Day for last weekend. That went over well. He had worked really hard on it. Laura was kind enough to come up and help with it. We went swimming after spending a very hot day on the square.

Mother's Day was very uneventful. I was suppose to cook lunch for Randy's mother but there was a slight change of plans. I was sick. So I spent the better part of Mother's Day in the bed. Maybe next year I can cook that meal for Annette.

I know that this is brief, but it is a quick update of what has been keeping us going. Enjoy the slide show. And I promise to do better.

Happy Easter

Pride of Andalusia

Randy finally got something he has wanted for the last few years. No it wasn't a new gun, golf club or any other man toy. He got the Pride of Andalusia.

The story is actually quite comical, if you know Randy and how he is about our yard. I came home one day while Randy was at work and there was the sign. I had to laugh because I knew Randy would have a fit. The yard looked terrible. The grass was awful, there was old pine straw in the beds,and there were dead plants every where.

When I finally got to talk to him and tell him his response was "Oh No." He told me to get straw in the beds. This is a task that I just can't do because me and pine straw don't work together. So his next sentence was call Jerry. Which is exactly what I did. Jerry had his guys come out here and they did a beautiful job. After they finished it looked like we should have won the award.

I am very thankful that the Junior Woman's Club thought that we were deserving. Randy loves spending time in the yard working. I think that he would do it all day everyday if he could. So I am glad that someone saw the efforts that he has put into the yard. On the other hand I think what have kind of monster has they created. We are now spending lots of time with Jerry and Kim. We have now planted 5 trees along with numerous other plants. It is really bad when your husband has been gone for two weeks and his first thoughts on his way home are where can I stop for plants. And the one that really takes the cake, is that he goes to the nursery before he even comes home.

Again, I appreciate the award but can I send the bill to the Junior Women's Club??

What we've been up to....

Yes, I know that I have become a blog slacker. Things have really been busy at our house. Randy has come home, gone to work and come back again since my last post.

Last month when Randy was home we built a privacy fence. Man, why didn't we do that years ago. Who knew that one side of a fence could help you keep your sanity from having crappy neighbors. The only problem now is we can't be nosy neighbors. So I guess we will never know if a new junky storgage building appears or if he tries to stop our water from draining. Anyway...the fence has given us a new area to landscape. We spent this weekend helping keep Jerry Howell and Kim in business.




We have also planted a small garden for Sarah Katherine. We went to the Master Gardener plant sale last month and they had activities for the children. They had several seed that they let the kid glue on a piece of newspaper for planting. We chose carrots. They are now starting to sprout up. We also planted her a cherry tomato plant and two bell pepper plants and she sure is proud. She checks them daily and wants to water them hourly.





I spent the last two weeks working. Thank goodness. I have met a really great couple who have been house hunting. They were both in the military and have spent the last eight years in Germany. I have really enjoyed getting to know them and hopefully we will find them a house very soon.

Cookies with Characters

Today Sarah Katherine got to spend the afternoon with all of her favorite characters. Thanks to Meredith's Miracles and their wonderful fundraiser we got to experience Cookies With Characters. This is a fund raiser that give the children in our community the opportunity to visit with some of their favorites characters.

We started out watching a show that they characters put together. There was Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Goofy & Pluto, Cookie Monster & Elmo, Pooh, all the princesses, Spider man, Superman, Batman, a Power Ranger, a Ninga Turtle, Dora, Hannah Montana, Barney and there are some that we are forgetting. Sarah Katherine wasn't too sure about the show. The most reaction we got from Sarah Katherine was from Sponge Bob, which she doesn't even get to watch.

Once the show was over we got to go around and visit with all of the characters and make pictures. I hope you all enjoy them. I know Sarah Katherine had a great time. She was a tired little girl when we left. Didn't hardly make it out of the parking lot before she was sound asleep.

What a busy Sunday!!!

Ever since Randy got home this week we have all been a little lazy. I don't know if has been the weather or what. But I think we made up for it on Sunday. We began our day with the only thing Sarah Katherine ever wants to eat....pancakes. Randy does a wonder job with breakfast each morning.

After breakfast of course it was our daily dose of the Polar Express. Like I said earlier we will be sick of it before next Christmas. Randy had to go out once again and work on plumbing. I am so thankful that he is able to be so handy.

We had to have an early lunch today because Sarah Katherine had a birthday party to go to. We knew that we had to get some sort of nap in her or we would be miserable. The party was for James Milton who is in Sarah Katherine's class at "school." The teachers and his mother say that he calls Sarah Katherine "Pretty Girl." We hope that this is not a start of things to come!!! James Milton had a western themed party which Randy was so excited about. He actually wanted me to do this for Sarah Katherine's party but I didn't. Any way!!!!

This was the perfect opportunity for Sarah Katherine to get to wear her outfit that Randy bought her in Colorado. He bought her a pair of pink cowgirl boots, blue jeans, a shirt, a cowgirl hat and a pink gun and holster. We weren't able to wear the jeans and shirt it was a little too cool for that.

It was so much fun to see all the kids in their Western attire. They had horses there for them to ride. We just knew that Sarah Katherine would love this. She got to ride on one of them. But I think that she had more fun playing chase. There was plenty of room for her to run and play and not get into anything. She did make a few new friends while we were there.

Thanks Toka, Michael and James Milton for a fun afternoon.

After the party we came home and got ready for the Super Bowl. We are not big football people but you have to watch it if only for the commercials. Mother, Daddy and Norma came over to watch with us. I don't really have a favorite commercial. Our entertainment was much better.

Sarah Katherine found Nana's glasses and had to read to Ms. Norma. Her other favorite....The Grinch.







Needless to say Sarah Katherine had a full day and it didn't take long for to be out. We just knew that she would be so tired she wouldn't even get up. Not so lucky. We had our companion in the bed twice last night. This is a problem that we are working on and will make a great post for later.