I always wonder...

what happened to summer???? Here it is Labor Day again, and school starts on Tuesday. We did have a wonderful summer though- several nice vacations (thanks Mom and Dad!!!!!), fun beach days, pool trips, hanging out with lots of friends and family- it was all a blast! I thought moving would consume this summer, but it didn't. I feel like we were settled in a day (thanks Boeves!!!!) and it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as I had imagined. The builder/realtors have our old house looking so cute. They repainted our bedroom and bathroom, cleaned the carpets and staged the rest of the downstairs with Parade of Home furniture. It really looks great! At this point, it won't matter if it sells or not probably because I am sure if it sells, it won't close before our builder buys it anyway. But I am sure he is hoping it sells!!!!!

We have a few things left to do in our new house- light fixtures still aren't here, so we are hoping for those next week. Sadie's bathroom mirror got painted last week and that is adorable! There are a few odds and ends to finish up and some furniture still to buy, but we love it here! The pool has been a better perk than I imagined.

The weekend turned out to be busier than expected- as of my last post, we really didn't have any plans. Thursday night we ended up going to the pool to swim after Cobe's football practice. Lisa and Lynette and their kids came over to swim for awhile too (or was that Wednesday night????- my days run together!) Friday we spent the afternoon at the pool with Jen and Lynette and their kids (plus a few extras). Chase came over and spent the day with Cobe and Dimitri and a friend of Bailey's came as well. It was a fun day b/c the pool was busy with kids so it keeps them well-entertained. Ryan got off work early and got to spend some time with us there unexpectedly. Friday night, the Bell kids came over while Lynette took some pictures and once again, they were all entertained by each other. Makes for a happy me! :-) Saturday Brooks woke up miserable with allergies (he had been bad off all week, but during the night Friday night he cried b/c his eyes hurt so badly), so we took him to the doctor Saturday morning. The Dr. gave him some eye drops that have helped tremendously. I was super appreciative because the Dr. didn't make us go get a prescription but gave us samples instead. It was a new doctor in the practice, and I really liked him. The drops almost worked immediately for Brooks so I was glad to see him not as miserable. He still has itchy, watery eyes and all of the other allergy symptoms that go along with ragweed, but at least he can open his eyes now. I finally made it into work for awhile after dealing with that in the morning and got some stuff done for this week. Saturday night was a fun night at the Boeves- great food, a fire, and kids running amuck all night. The guys and kids (and Lisa too!) played some guitar hero and then we headed outside for the fire.

Today we slept in- we have got to get back on some sort of schedule. Neither Ryan, me nor the kids got up until after 9:30!!!!!! Church was at 10:00, so we missed that. We had a leisurely morning and got ready to go to MJ's and Jim's for lunch and boating. We had a great time kayaking, boating and going on the paddle boat (or is it a pedal boat???). The kids did their usual jump off the pontoon and swim into the dock from across the lake. I missed out on that b/c I was on the kayak with Sadie. Now we are back home and enjoying a quiet evening. The kids are whipped! Sadie already fell asleep beside me for awhile, but she is awake again now.

Tomorrow brings....no plans once again for the moment. I am sure we may at sometime hit the pool one last time. It closes sometime this week, but I know we won't have time to go after tomorrow with school, work, football and soccer practices at night. Cobe is supposed to have practice sometime tomorrow as well, so I guess he and Ryan will head off to that at some point.

Well..... I am hoping I will love my new work schedule as much as I think I will. To be done for the day before 10:00 will be nice. Ryan getting all 3 kids off to school in the morning worries me a bit, but I am sure they'll get into a groove, and it will go fine... as long as he remembers to wake up! haha

I hope everyone has had a great weekend so far and has a great start to school this week!

Internet Woes

I praised my internet and celebrated prematurely! I haven't been able to log on for 2 days at home. :-( So if I am AWOL for awhile, it is because the slow speed/unable to connect is holding me back. I could check email today at work, but most likely I won't be checking email/blogging this weekend.

We don't have a ton planned for the weekend. Cobe has a friend coming over, and we are going to the pool tomorrow with Jen and her boys, and they may be staying here tomorrow night for Jen and Chad to go out. Saturday night is the Boeves for brats and a fire, and other than that, we have natta. I will sneak into work for a few hours to finish up for next week, hit a few stores for school supplies, and that is about it for our weekend. Hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend!

Brooks' Week

For those of you who know Brooks, you know he is my quiet, reserved, shy, sensitive, mama's boy. I love him dearly!!!! He is so calm and mild compared to his two siblings. Such an easy child to parent!!!! He has had a big week, and he has amazed me. He started soccer Monday night- got out on the field, practiced for about 15 minutes, was doing fine, then started crying for no reason and decided he was done. He had so much pent up nervousness, that it came out in tears. His coach was very encouraging; I was encouraging, threatening, bargaining, bribing, etc. to get him back out there- nothing worked. He was content to sit on the sidelines and watch. At the end of practice, he told his coach, "See you next time," and he was happy. Huh???? He told me when we got to the car that he would do it next time, and knowing Brooks, he will.

So I was COMPLETELY nervous about kindergarten orientation tonight. He and I had to ride the bus, go to his classroom for him to stay and I had to leave for a parents' meeting. He had slept all afternoon because his allergies are HORRIFIC this year, so he was pretty low-key. Several times on the bus he told me he wanted to go home. I was bracing for a fiasco. That little peanut walked right into his class, told me goodbye and never shed a tear. When I went to pick him back up after the meeting, Mrs. Willemstein (his teacher) said he participated and even sung the songs she did (Brooks turns around backwards at church in the choir and does NOT sing- EVER! and Mrs. Willemstein is his choir teacher at church too so she knew how huge it was for him to sing tonight!) He was proud as punch to show me all the handouts he had gotten, his folder, his bus tag, etc. and he was on cloud 9. I was so proud of him. Here are a few pictures of his allergy-ridden self and one of the fish he caught at mom and dad's. Off to bed for me- work day tomorrow for teachers.

Brooks IN his locker. I told him I wanted a picture of him beside it; he chose to get in it. :-)
My baby getting on the big ole bus! He's too little to ride the bus!!!!!!!
Brooks with his catfish caught in Lake Gaston.

Classic, classic Brooks photo. I told him to pose with his teacher, and this was his response. I didn't complain since he had done everything else he was supposed to. I told Ryan that I am happy he did this for the picture because this is his true personality in new situations. :-) Notice his bruised-looking, swollen eyes?????- ALLERGIES!!!! Yuck!!!

But we SURE DO LOVE Mrs. Willemstein. I know she will take good care of my baby, and she knows his antics well!

Say No to Crack!!!!

My trial picture upload worked!!! YAY!!!!

Back in the Game????

Well, since returning home, my internet seems quite a bit faster. Absence makes the heart grow fonder? I hope it is a case where I am not disappointed tomorrow and have slow service again. We had a WONDERFUL vacation (if you couldn't tell from my daily posts!) and now it is back to the grind. Our trip home went well- everyone stayed healthy and safe. We hit more traffic than usual, then when we hit Michigan, the fog was atrocious!!!! I have never seen Ryan drive so slow. It was thick!!!!! But we still made it in 13 1/2 hours which isn't too bad for the traffic and fog. Today was unpacking, grocery shopping and of course, a Target run. :-) I got 3 brown, wooden, folding Adirondack chairs for my front porch-they were on clearance. I think I really like them. I need a table to go near them, but otherwise, I think they are perfect for the porch. Ryan and I sat out there tonight and had a drink, then Lisa came over and we sat out there and chatted. So they are cute and functional!

This week the busyness picks up. Cobe has football 3 nights a week and a game every Saturday from now until the end of October. Little Brooksie starts soccer as well and will have a few practices until games begin. Once church starts in September on Wednesday nights (which I am teaching again), we will have something every single night of the week. Ugh! Who has time for homework????? I have to work Wed. and Thurs. this week, Brooks has orientation Tuesday night, Cobe has orientation Wednsday afternoon/evening and then school starts Tuesday for everyone next week (not Sadie- she starts the next Tuesday). I am looking forward to a relaxing, boring Labor Day weekend so I'll want to go back to work (if that is possible).

My parents are coming in September to stay a week. Ryan has to go out of town, so they thankfully can come and stay that week to get the kids to school all week. They will also be bringing us a couch, 2 chairs, an ottoman and a tv (among other random things- pots, pans, some of my high school memoribilia). The kids are excited that they don't have to wait too long to see Nana and Papa. They get used to being waited on hand and foot- right mom? :-)

Tomorrow I'm going to try posting a picture with this new found speedier internet- don't hold your breath though! Off to hopefully finish Breaking Dawn, the last book in the series I've been reading. Has anyone taken my advice and starting reading these yet???? You won't be sorry! I have about 80 pages left and I am dragging it out b/c I don't want to be done!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Back to Lake Gaston

We left Emerald Isle this afternoon around 3:00 and came back to mom and dad's at the lake. Brooks felt carsick quite soon into our trip, so we had to hit a K-Mart for some Dramimine. It didn't help much for awhile, so we had to stop to let him get out and walk around. Then we hit some road construction where we crawled for awhile, then Cobe had to stop later and go to the bathroom. Then the kids got hungry so we hit a Burger King. Whew! We don't stop that much on a 12 hour trip!!!!!!!! It took us 4 hours to get from point A to point B- my parents left after us and got here before us. Oh well- we are safely here and will be returning to MI tomorrow night/Sunday a.m. sometime. Brooks has already been fishing and caught a catfish- IF I can post when I get home, I'll post the proud boy with his fish. Off to get the kids in bed- long trip ahead again tomorrow. Please pray for safe travel and good traveling weather.

Day 6- Emerald Isle

The ocean was SO much fun today- huge waves and the kids really enjoyed seeing the huge waves and rolling around in them. Unfortunately though, the beach itself wasn't so pleasant. It was so windy that sand was blowing. We thought we'd have a long beach day today, but because of the blowing sand, we cut it short and ended up at the pool for most of the afternoon. My family came in, got ready and took some family pictures before heading back to the same restaurant we went to last night- Riverside. It was just as delicious tonight- I got the exact same thing- She Crab Soup and a portabello mushroom stuffed with crabmeat. They also serve sweet potato muffins that are to die for! So yummy!!!!! I took a hundred pictures today, but here is a small sampling:


The Walker clan: Miles, Jeff, Michele, Mom, Brooks, Dad, Cobe, Sadie, Ryan, me and Brent

My family

Chele, Miles and Jeff

Sadie with her Nana on the beach

The races continued today. I got whooped some more by Cobe and Ryan. Here are Kyle, Chad and Ryan hot-footing it down the beach.

Mom and Dad with their 4 grandkids

3 hot biker chicks- we rented Harleys for the week, so we thought we'd better dress the part as well (haha- not really!)

Sadie LOVES the water and the sand. Really she does. I haven't been able to get her out of it most of the time. But OF COURSE, when it comes time for a picture, a wave knocked into her from the back so she wouldn't stop crying for this family water picture. UGH! Would have been perfect if she would have been smiling or at least looking pleasant! I love this picture!!!!!

Tomorrow is our last day here. We are going to head back to my parents' lake house for a night/day to break up the trip a little. The Michigan crew is leaving tomorrow night to drive the long haul back tomorrow night. All good thing must come to an end sometime, but I wish it weren't so soon! This has been a wonderful vacation where many great memories were made!

Day 5 Emerald Isle

Today was another great day. We went to the pool for awhile this morning (after sleeping in and skipping my usual morning walk-super sore from all my running races yesterday). We then went to the NC Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores. It was a good experience for the kids- we got to see big old sharks- always exciting! :-) They also got to touch and pick up sea creatures like starfish, horseshoe crabs, sting rays, spider crabs, whelks and hermit crabs. After returning, my kids spent some time in their rooms because they needed to catch up on some sleep. It was taking a toll on them to go-go-go all day, and we all needed some down time. After naps, we headed out to the beach for some late afternoon fun. We came back in, showered and then headed out to dinner- Jeff and Michele, Kyle and Amanda, Jen and Chad, and us. The grandparents watched all the grandkids, so we had a fun night out at Riverside restaurant in Swansboro, NC. Here are today's pictures:

Kyle and Amanda- such a bad shadow on the picture, but I only got 2 of them, and they both had shadows.

Jeff and Michele-much better lighting.
Jen and Chad- good lighting and a prettier background than the rest of our pictures.

Me and my hubby

Jen not quite ready for the picture- see our matching necklaces Missy?

Pirates Miles and Brooks- Nana brought them pirate skull caps as well as eye patches from her shopping trip to Beaufort
Chad in one of the VERY few pictures I have ever taken of him. He usually shies away from the camera. I have to sneak pictures of him.

Gray-gray with her daddy
Oh no! Help! The alligator has Brooks!
Get him Kyle! Poke his eyes out to save your arm!
Isn't Cobe brave wrestling that alligator?????
The parental units this morning- they headed out to lunch at Crawford's and shopping in Beaufort for the morning/early afternoon.

Miles trying out swimmies for the first time. Ain't he a cutie pie?????

Day4 Emerald Isle- WHAT A BLAST!!!!

Today has been great so far!!!!! I went for my usual morning walk, returned and just vegged for awhile. Sadie, Josh and Braelyn played in the "hot tub" for a long while so I got on the computer to try out my new little addiction- Facebook. Never thought I'd enjoy that, but I have had so much fun looking at profiles/pictures, etc. of friends from high school. We ate an early lunch and then all headed to the beach. The kids all dug big holes in the sand and made moats around them, and then we had an Olympic competition of our own. So wishing I had taken my camera to the beach today, but I think Amanda got a few shots of the big races, so maybe she'll post. Amanda, Jen, me and my kids had multiple races on the beach. Then Kyle and Brent and even Jim got in on the action for awhile. Amanda and Jen can flat out run!!!!!! I always thought I was fast for my age, but no way! They can run! Cobe of course was the instigator behind the many races, and he had to keep re-doing and re-running to make sure he came out victorious. :-) He doesn't get his competitive side from a stranger! We then headed back to the pool and had some toddies. After that, we went to the pier b/c Kyle and Jim had seen sharks there yesterday, but today we only saw dolphins. Came home and mom and dad had boiled shrimp for dinner. Yum ! We are thoroughly enjoying our vacation!!!!! I only took a few pics at the pier tonight:




Jim with Selah and Braelyn

G-I G-I

Ryan

Sadie and Joshy Boy squinting into the sun

Sadie Clare at the pier watching the dolphins


Jen looking peeved because Chad and I were tormenting her at the time. :-) And now I am tormenting her now b/c she asked me to delete this picture. Don't you love me Jen?????

Milesy at the pier

Cobe looking at the view finder/telescope thingy at the pier

Brooksie Jackson trying to avoid me and not wanting his picture taken.

AND I thought I was taking pictures of the dolphins from the pier, but they didn't show up. If you look really hard, you can see a fin. (The dark spot) There were about 10 dolphins swimming by the pier while we were there.

Day 3 Emerald Isle

Another day of vacation sadly gone. Started off with another walk/run this morning. Returned and headed to the beach with everyone. Poor Cobe- he has a bad rash/rubbed place on his legs that is causing him a lot pain, so he wasn't able to enjoy the beach very much today because it stung so badly. He and Michele headed back in and the rest of us stayed until lunch time. Cobe and I went shopping after lunch while Sadie napped and Brooks swam/played with his cousins. Then we came home and Ryan swam with the boys playing crazy pool games. Like.... let's ride Gracyn's little car into the pool with a kid on it. The boys had a riot but it appeared to be a game where it was inevitable someone would get hurt. Luckily, no one did.

Dinner was take-out from Jordan's- yummy seafood. I had shrimp, oysters and crab cake. Delicious!!! Seafood is my favorite food! Chad took the boys to the beach after dinner and they had a couple hours of baseball on the beach. Kyle and Jim are fishing, and the rest of us are just chilling. Now I am looking forward to watching the season premiere of the Hills tonight- you out there Em????? I am sure tomorrow will be more beach time- hopefully my brother Brent will be joining us tomorrow for the rest of the week. Here are some pictures from today:



Here is a picture of the indoor entertainment. Sadie took at least 4 baths today in the "hot tub." She and Braelyn took one last night, she took a few today by herself, one with these 2 boys and one next door with Josh, Braelyn and Selah. It is a huge whirlpool/jacuzzi in the master bedroom.
Here is the whole crew out on the beach this morning minus my mom- she was on a walk, and me of course since I was taking the picture. There are 22 of us here now- one more tomorrow when Brent comes.

Mary Jo and Jim with 3 of their granddaughters.

Jim with his girls.

Cobe trying to let the salt water heal his rash. Didn't work- he was pretty much miserable on the beach. He has been keeping it dry as much as possible now and putting medicine on it. Hopefully it heals soon so he can enjoy the rest of his vacation.

Baywatch anyone?

Sadie enjoyed the water today more than she has- she kept running and jumping in.

My three angels.

Day 2 Emerald Isle

Did I mention that I LOVE the beach????? I got up at 7:15 this morning, went for an hour walk/jog, then hit the beach for the morning. My high school best friend, Allison Anthony, met up with me (and her daughter as well- Abby) and spent the day with us. It was great catching up and hanging out with them. Mary Jo, Sadie and I went to the beach this morning and had an awesome experience. Right off shore, and I mean RIGHT off shore- we could have walked out to them, we saw a pod of dolphin swimming when we got to the beach. We were sitting in our chairs and Mary Jo noticed a fin. Uh oh! She first thought shark! But then we noticed several others and then the dolphins put on a show for us coming up out of the water. It was super cool! They kept swimming down the shoreline until they were out of sight. I tried my best to get a picture, but I was always an instant too late snapping it. Ryan, the boys, mom, dad, Jeff and Michele joined us on the beach for the morning. We stayed until about 1:30, headed in for lunch and some pool time. Right before dinner, it started to rain lightly, so after dinner, we hit some island shops. We got some MORE shoes for Cobe (his 4th pair on this trip!), some gym shorts for me, and a couple of toys for the kids (or I should say my mom got those), and of course, the traditional beach shark's tooth necklace. Both boys had to have one of those! :-) (thanks to Nana once again). Now I am headed off to read some more of the vampire tale! Here are a few pics from the day- I took about 30, so these are just a few.

Gracyn Kay and Amanda Kay at the pool this afternoon.

Selah Reese swimming like a fish!

Brooks, Cobe, Jake and Justin in the middle of a heated fighting/war pool game they made up.

Cobe and Ryan boogie-boarding.


Miles and Sadie digging a big hole on the beach this morning.

The crew enjoying the sun, surf and sand this morning.

Sadie could sit all day and dig. She loves the beach as much as her mama!