Busy Week

Our busy week started last Friday when I was bored around the house and decided to go on a spur of the moment trip to Cahokia Mounds an Indian site close to us. We walked up the great Monks mound and then took a tour of the Visitors center. It was very nice. Not the same as when I was a kid. That kept us busy for a few hours and then we came home to take a nap.

Saturday Mike worked on the yard all day. I also went to Jean's baby shower which reminded me of when I was pregnant with Cameron.

Sunday was a totally impromptu day which started out with church (that was planned). When we came home Mike gave some older friends of ours a call because he needed to work on their computer. We went over there for lunch and while we were there their daughter who is in her late twenties stopped by with her boyfriend to visit her parents. Well, it turns out that she loves kids and she ended up taking the boys into the pool and playing with them for two hours. None of us brought swimsuits because we were not expecting to swim so Cameron wore his underwear and Garrett wore his regular diaper until it got to heavy and fell off and then he just skinny dipped. They loved it and we now found a backup babysitter. That night the boys spent the night at Memaw and Pops house so that Mike and I could go see the movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with the friends whose house we went to earlier.

Tuesday night we took the boys to Splash City a small water park near us in Collinsville. We had never been there before and the boys enjoyed their first visit. It has several little water play areas for the littler kids which is nice. It is nothing like Six Flags but it was fun. We went on Tuesday night because it is family night and the rate is half price.

This morning I took the boys to see "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything", a veggie tales movie, at the local theater. It was a free showing. We like free! I was actually glad that we were able to see it now because we missed it when it came to the theater the first time.

I am just a little bit tired now. Plus, adding to all this Mike started a new work schedule. He now works 11 hours a day four days a week and is off on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He leaves at 6:30 and comes home at 6:30. This has been a little adjustment because I was used to sleeping in until 8:00am and he would feed them breakfast. Now I have to get up early and we have to eat all three meals without Daddy. I'm sure it will all be worth it when he is home on Friday. We did it to save a little gas money. His work started offering this at the beginning of the year because of the highway 40 construction. We are just going to take advantage of this opportunity to try and save a little money.

New Way to Rent Movies

Mike and I do not watch any television shows so we watch movies when we can. We found a new and inexpensive way to watch movies through Netflix. I am sure that you have all heard about it. We decided to give it a try. I am sure that we are really going to enjoy it. We can watch old movies that you cannot even find anymore in the video store. I am also looking forward to watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman the series from the 90's. They have all of the seasons. I had looked into buying them and it was going to cost over a hundred dollars for each season. That was definitely out of the question. Now I can watch them for a lot less. Plus, I love the fact that the movies are delivered to your door and I don't have to take the kids to the video store to drop off or pick out a movie. So cool. We watched our first movie last night, but we didn't watch the whole thing because it had too much cussing and gruesome scenes. We are mailing it out today and will get our next selection in a couple of days.

Daddy Did It

Mike has been asking the boys if they wanted a haircut like him for months now and they usually say, "No". Last night he asked and they said, "Yes". I was very leary because I like little boys to have some hair. Plus, I really liked Garrett's curls. The boys look so very different now that I have to get used to it. Here are the pictures before and after. For some reason I cannot turn Garrett's after picture around so you will have to view it sideways.

Okay, I have been really bad about keeping up my blogs. There just hasn't been that much going on around here. We have basically been hibernating from the St. Louis heat and humidity. I've been out a few times to water the flowers and go to the store before it gets blazing hot. I am just not one for the summer heat and humidity. I would rather have the nice 70 degree weather. I am biding my time until we go on our vacation to Colorado in September. I can't wait. Mike and I have never been there together and I haven't been there since 1995. I absolutely love the mountains. They are so beautiful. It must be in my blood since I was born there. I would rather go to the mountains than a beach. Mike is just the opposite. He loves the beach. I guess that we will have to try for one of those next year. Although next year we will be going to Branson also because it will be our year to stay in our own timeshare down there. That will be fun.

Let me see, what else has been going on around here. We held a Sunday School reunion party here a couple of weeks ago. That was nice to see all of the old friends again. We are all working at teaching preschoolers, middle schoolers, or high schoolers so we don't see a lot of each other lately. Mike and I teach the two year olds for Sunday School. They are not too bad unless we have about 14 of them and a couple are criers.

Mike gave me a weekend off this past weekend. You may ask what is this? Well, since I am with the kids pretty much 24/7 then Mike gives me every third weekend when he takes the boys over to his parents house for Friday night and Saturday day. This gives me a chance to relax and unwind. I really enjoy the peace and quite of having the house to myself. This past weekend I worked on a table runner sample that we will be teaching people how to make on August 2, and a dress that I wanted to make for last Sunday, but I didn't get it done because I wanted to watch some chick flicks. I will try to finish it sometime this week so that I can wear it to church on Sunday. I am running out of dresses that fit my growing belly.

I think that pretty much catches you up on our laid back two weeks. Oh and for fun Mike and I have watched a couple of good movies. One was John Adams the mini series that was on HBO. Mike's parents bought a copy of it and Mike and I learned many things about John Adams and what he did to help form this country. Very interesting. We are now watching a documentary that PBS put out on the civil war. This is also very fascinating to us. I know, I know. Some of you are thinking you guys need a life. We just find history to be very interesting and I love hearing stories of peoples lives. In fact, my new favorite kind of book is a biography. I am now reading Julie Andrews biography. I never thought that I would be interested in that before, but tastes change. I have also read Nicholas Sparks' biography and Chuck Norris' biography. Both were fascinating.

Now you know why I haven't kept up with my blog very well. There is just not much interesting going on around here. The boys have been arguing quite a bit, but that is usual. Cameron also goes around the house saying my little sister will do this and that. We are really hoping that we have a girl. Everyone here wants one. We will not find out for another 6 months what it is though.

First Trip to Six Flags

Wednesday we went to Six Flags with Pam, Bryan, McCayla, Zachery and Bryan's Mom, Diane. It was the first time that any of the kids had gone there. I was a little apprehensive about how I would feel being in the heat all day and not eating regular meals, or getting my daily nap but there was nothing to worry about. I felt fine all day and we all had a blast. We started off our day with a huge breakfast at McDonald's before entering the park. That ended up lasting us until 2 or 3 o'clock. Then we bathed ourselves in sunscreen and loaded up the cars to head off to the park. The first ride that we went on was the log flume. The kids really liked that one and it was the only wet ride we went on all day because the Thunder River was shut down for the week due to maintenance. Then Bryan, Pam, Mike and Diane went on the Evel Kenneval coaster and Pam and I took the kids on the Moon Cars. Pam was supposed to make it back to the coaster on time to do a parent swap but while Garrett and I were driving the Moon cars we got stuck on the track and that took extra time. OOps! That was okay because none of the lines were very long in the park that day. Wednesday must be a good day to go. Most of the lines were only 15 to 20 minutes. The only two long ones were Tony Hawk and Superman and that was probably because they were not filling the cars up like they used to do. Pam and I were noticing several things that were different about the park since we worked there in 95 and 96. It was a little disappointing. All day long we were busy and we had fun. My little thrill seeker Cameron went on all the rides that he could due to height requirements. He went on the Screamin Eagle once and then asked Daddy if he could go again which they did because there was hardly any line at all. Garrett and I stuck to the more docile rides because he was too little for most of the rides and I being pregnant did not want to make myself sick. I think that I spent half my day in the kiddie section. We had a very full and fun day when about an hour and a half before the park closed we decided to get ice cream and then hit the last of the rides. Lucky for us we decided on ice cream at that particular moment because it down poured and there was a severe thunder storm warning. There was lightening and thunder everywhere so we stayed put for about an hour or so and then made a break for it. We got pretty wet going for the car but not drenched because we waited for a lull. Mike and I changed the boys into their pajamas in the car which we had brought along so that we wouldn't have to wake them to put them to bed when we arrived back home. We knew that they would crash on the car ride home. This was the account of our first trip to Six Flags.

I do want to mention to those that live in the St. Louis area that Six Flags is running a special from now through October. You can go to Six Flags six times this season for the price of a one day admission ticket which is $35.99. We were very tempted to do this except for the fact that I am pregnant and I can't go on much. Plus, when you have little ones it is much better to go with a group. Another thing is they do have the parent swap where one parent goes and stands in line and when they get off the ride the other parent with the kids can then get on without waiting in line again. This is not well advertised and you have to be assertive when using this privilege because the operators of the ride do not always let you get on first before they open the gates.