Last Minute Spring Break Fun

As mentioned in my last (depressing, sorry!) post, the Kennett’s have really been in need of some fun.

Jason told me to “just book it”, so I did :)

We spent the weekend in KC. The weather was horrible. Like, 30 something degrees and snowing, horrible. We had planned to visit the zoo, but with the nasty weather, we opted to spend the entire weekend indoors at our hotel (which had an indoor water park).

I took the camera to the park for a few minutes on Saturday morning to snap a few shots.

The one time we left the hotel all weekend, was to go to eat at the T-Rex Cafe. It was the kids’ first time to go there, so it was fun to see them enjoying everything. Well—Gracie was pretty much freaked out about everything and she said she “never wants to come back here again”. She started to relax at the end, as we were getting ready to leave (of course!).

Braden pretending to be shocked by the size of his drink :)

It was very dark in there and the flash was very bright!

“Hey kids, yall look at Mamma for a picture!” Or not…

We came home early enough on Sunday afternoon to be able to chill out (and for me to start laundry!).

Braden had dvr’d the USA vs Argentina soccer game while we were gone and when we got home, he promptly painted his face and sat down to watch his game.

(The kid has forgotten how to take a non-goofy picture!)

Rhett spent the afternoon pretending to be a director and making videos of his sister. I’ll have to watch them and see if there’s anything worth posting—they sure were having fun and I heard some really cute stuff going on.

I’m SO SO SO thankful that we were able to get away for a couple days. We needed to get away, turn off the phones and computers and forget about work for a little bit. We were able to spend much needed quality time together as a family and it was wonderful.

The part about having to share a double bed with my husband (and our 4 1/2 yr old daughter for 1/2 of the night) wasn’t all that fun (we are used to sleeping in a King!). We expected to have a rollaway bed for her, but upon check-in we were told that it would violate the fire code and they’d send up some extra blankets to make her a pallet on the floor. I would’ve never booked the room if I’d known that, but at that point, we didn’t really have much of a choice. So, not a whole lot of quality sleep, but still very much worth it!!

Random

Spring is here. Love the warmth and the sunshine.

The flowers and trees are so pretty to look at, but if you have Springtime allergies, it can also be not so pretty.

I’ve been fighting allergy related symptoms for about 2 1/2 weeks now, and I fear that it is just the beginning of what is likely to be a very long Spring of sickness.

It all started when I laid in bed on a Saturday night a couple weeks ago and the room started spinning. The spinning made me sick to my stomach and I spent the rest of the long night willing the spinning to go away and for me to quit throwing up. It didn’t work too well. To make it even worse, my hubby was out of town for work. Bad timing!

I felt like this off and on for over a week.

Not fun!

It was accompanied by ear pain, so I finally went to the dr this past week. I have fluid behind my ear drums which is causing an inner ear disturbance. So, I’m on nasal spray now in addition to my daily allergy meds.

If I don’t start to feel better in the next couple days, I’m going to go get a steroid shot.

I have been feeling icky and laying around without much energy for the past couple weeks and I’ve just about had it with that!

With the lack of energy that I’ve been experiencing, I’ve been cutting corners around the house wherever possible. I started throwing all the socks in a laundry basket and haven’t folded any in about a week. Today, I spread them all out and started folding. I had several strays with no match, so I pulled out the stash of lonely socks I already had thinking I’d be able to match them all up. No luck! These are all the socks without a mate… we looked in everyone’s sock drawers to see if we found any stragglers and NONE! I am so sick of holding on to all of these socks waiting for the matches to show up…they are now in the trash.

Where in the world did this many socks disappear to?!?!?!?!?!

It’s Spring break this week (Wed-Fri) and I’m dreaming of being at a nice warm, sunny, beautiful place. Really, I’d even take somewhere closer to home… I’d take anything. We aren’t doing anything fun. We are working and going about life as usual. Except I will have extra little bodies at home all day and I will be doing a lot more cooking, cleaning, supervising and refereeing. It’s all good though. Maybe I’ll get some of my energy back and we can even go do something fun during the day one day? Although going to the park is about as “fun” as it’s gonna get! What else is there to do that is close and free :)

I have to admit, I’ve been pouting about the lack of vacation-ness in my life for a while now. I love to go, travel and see. It’s been a stressful winter and going well over a year without a vacation and no breaks in sight…well… it’s just depressing sometimes. But, I’ve gotta keep my head held high and my eyes on the prize. God has given us other things to spend our money on besides vacations at his stage in our life and I know that it will all be worth it when we are able to accomplish that which he has set before us. (Maybe I should stay off facebook for the next week or so—that way I won’t have to look at everyone’s mobile uploads of plane rides, beaches and other fabulous vacationey stuff :)

I haven’t been to the gym since October when Gracie started staying home with me. This is the longest I’ve gone without working out in years. I’m starting to feel it. I’ve got to figure out a time to start going back a few days a week. I HATE working out at home and have no motivation to do it. I don’t like going in the evenings, b/c IF my hubby is home, then I want to be with him…we don’t spend nearly enough time together as it is, so the last thing I want to do is leave him.

When do you other busy moms find the time to workout??

Lastly, what’s for dinner this week?? I have no motivation to cook whatsoever. Maybe it also goes along with the lack of energy, but I don’t even feel like warming up a hot dog or a can of spaghetti-o’s. What is with me? I’ve gotta get it together and figure out what to cook my munchkins this week!

Terrific Kid

Rhett was recently chosen to be a Kiwanis Terrific Kid!

This was his first time to be picked and he was sooo proud. And so were Mamma and Daddy!

Gracie and I went to the assembly at the school to see him get his award and snap this picture of him.

We love you Rhett man! Keep up the good work buddy!!

The BIG snow!

Look at that snow!
I never had a chance to blog about this snow, but didn’t want to forget it!

Neither Jason or I can remember ever seeing this much snow at once. We ended up with about 22” here at our house. It sure was pretty!!

Rhett sitting on the grass next to the driveway. We almost lost him!

This was Jason’s truck by the curb in front of the house after he went to town. it was still so tall and no one had driven on the road at that point. You can really tell how tall the snow was at this point. His truck is a BIG 4x4 truck (I have trouble getting up in it- even with the running boards) and look how tall that snow is—you can even see the snow way up in the grill of the truck where he was pushing up down the road. CRAZY!

Daddy measuring the snow in the back yard. He wasn’t even standing in the drifts. In the drift, it went over 1/2 way up the fence!

Here’s my hubby clearing off the neighbor’s driveway with one of his “toys”.

Brotherly love!

My firstborn.

 

My baby boy.

As if I needed another reason to call my husband my hero, he ended up clearing 5 driveways this afternoon. He always cares more about others than he does for himself. Just one of the many reasons why I LOVE him so. (I’m sure I’ll get in trouble for putting this on here :)

 

This snow was beautiful, but I was glad to see it gone too! I’m ready for hot, sunny days by the pool!!

(I just noticed that I said that in the last post too! I wrote them days apart… I guess that shows how much I’m really ready for that!)

Snow #2

These pics were taken as the last of the 2nd snow of the year was melting off.

The kids had built a big snow fort and this afternoon they were having a snowball fight. Boys vs Daddy and Sissy.

This picture of Daddy and Rhett was taken just after Daddy pelted him with a snowball in the face (accident of course! We have a “don’t throw anything at anyone’s face rule!). He was sad and this was taken after Daddy was trying to console him. Poor thing. It was cold and I don’t blame him for being upset!

“Let me get a picture of the Daddy of the year! Look how unhappy your child is!”

Rhett sitting in the fort.

Braden was way into his gear and the snowball fight!

Here’s Sissy making snowballs from the snow she’d gathered in her bucket.

Check out Daddy and Sissy’s makeshift fort! 2 words. Red.Neck. :)

I’m so glad those babies of mine have a Daddy that LOVES to play with them! They have so much fun together. As for me…snow just ain’t my thang. I don’t like the cold… Warm Summer days by the pool… Where are you?????

Lots of Baking

Here lately, I’ve been doing lots of baking!!

First, there was a cookie cake and a Reece’s Candy Bar cake for a dear friend.

Then there was the Valentine’s Day cupcakes.
Here’s just a few of the boxes of cupcakes. Those who ordered sure did a good job of the mix and match. They were YUMMY assortments!!

Jason brought in an extra table to give me some more space. (And you’ll remember from my laundry room makeover post that I used the counter in the laundry room too!) That’s what happens when you bake, decorate and box up over 200 cupcakes in over 10 different varieties  in 1 day!!

And then there were the King Cakes!

These are quite labor intensive as it calls for many steps, including, cooking ingredients, cooling to a certain temp, blooming yeast, kneading, rising, rolling, rising, baking, icing, sugaring… whew!

BUT—the result is WORTH THE EFFORT!

1 word. YUMMY!!!!!

Mom came over and helped me get them done. We each did certain tasks and we went straight from 1 batch to the next. It worked out perfectly and we had so much fun just getting to be in the kitchen and spend time together.

The flavors we made were: Traditional Sugar and Cinnamon, Cream Cheese and Blueberry Cream Cheese.

We made my Dad a Blueberry Cream Cheese and the feedback I got from him was: “That’s a good son-of-a-gun.” I was pretty proud!

SEVEN MONTHS

Today marks 7 months on the wait list. In the beginning of this journey, I thought that my emotions would be so different at this point. I thought we would be getting very close to a referral by now. Which would mean LOTS of excitement around here!

But, things are much different than they were when we started. Things are moving very slowly. Instead of the excitement I thought I’d be feeling now, I’d say my emotions are mainly “cautiously optimistic”. I’m trying to remain positive and hopeful, but with that element of realism mixed in there too.

From the very beginning, we knew that things could change at any given time. But, honestly, we didn’t really expect it to.

I’m trying to shift my thinking to be more laid back about it. To not let thoughts of the little girl I’ve been dreaming about for about 18 months permeate every thought I have in my brain. I’m really trying, because it would sure make it easier on my heart. But, I’m not having much success. That may be easy for some, but I’m just not made up that way. I can’t just block out those feelings and hopes and dreams…. they are just too real and intense.

So, I’m praying constantly,  trying to keep things in perspective, meditating on God’s truths, remembering that He is in control of all of it.

One thing is for sure though, however long it ends up taking, we are another month closer.

I’ll end with my life verse that I picked for myself when I gave my life to Christ at the age of 16.

Proverbs 19:21
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”