Park of Roses

Life's been rough lately, we're going through a lot. God is good though. He's helping us, step by step. Your prayers are appreciated.

Yesterday Jeff and I went to the Columbus Park of Roses. We just wanted to get outside together, and we knew the roses would be in bloom. It's a beautiful park, obviously full of roses, but there are a lot of other plants and flowers too. We walked for a long time while I took pictures. It was really peaceful and nice.

Here are some of my pictures.

Ann's baby girl

I forgot one more good thing over the weekend - Ann's baby girl arrived safely. She was born Friday morning - Reese Madeline. She and Momma are both doing well. Congratulations Ann & Kent & big brother Davis!

We're back

It's been a rough several days. Late Thursday night we got a phone call that Jeff's grandfather wasn't doing well. He passed away a little after nine Friday morning. Since he'd been sick for a long time Jeff's aunts and uncle decided to move ahead quickly with things - calling hours Saturday, funeral on Sunday. I had two hours to pack us for the trip while Jeff finished things up at work and we both tried to figure out arrangements for where we would all stay and how things would work. It was complicated, but we made it. It was all stressful and exhausting.

There were some good point though too. Jeff's cousin Billie and I used to be very close, but had lost touch. I spent quite a bit of time with her and her girls, who are amazing. Jeff's sister (no relation to the grandfather who passed away) and her boyfriend were amazing, they kept the boys for us for both the calling hours and funeral, as well as the family time after the funeral. It was such a relief to not have to worry about the kids during everything else.

We're home now and trying to recover. Jeff has today off from work as well, so it's a good chance for us to re-group and get the house cleaned up. Tomorrow we'll try to get back into normal life.

Ann & Davis

Nothing too exciting has happened in the last couple of days... no falling in ponds or trips to the emergency room. However, this morning my friend Ann and her son Davis came over to visit. Davis and Trey are best friends. Ann is having baby number 2 on Friday, so we thought one more play date before everything changes would be good. We had a great time. The boys played together well and Ann and I enjoyed frappuccinos. YUM!

Here is a little tribute to my good friend Ann:

The rest of Mothers' Day

The rest of my mothers' day was supposed to be calm and low-key, but it didn't quite turn out that way. It wasn't bad... exactly...

Here are my scrapbook pages and here is the journaling from the second page:

We took a walk together to the duck pond Mothers' Day evening, it was a perfect night for a walk. We had fun watching the baby ducks and throwing them bread. When the bread was about gone we walked the 20 feet or so from the edge of the water back up to the path. Suddenly Roman took off running from next to me toward the water. I don't know what he was after, but he didn't stop when I called him and I suddenly realized that he was going downhill as fast as he could and couldn't stop! I ran after him, but was too late. He kept going, straight into the dirty, murky, stinky water, where he then fell face-first. As I ran after him I knew I didn't want to go in the water, but I had no choice. I ran in after him and pulled him out. Thankfully, he was fine, so there was nothing to do but laugh and head home. By the time we got there we really stunk! I put him in the bath and scrubbed him clean... twice!
Happy Mothers' Day to me!

Happy Mothers' Day

Happy Mothers' Day to all you wonderful moms out there! This picture is me and my boys having a good mothers' day.

We headed to church this morning with Jeff's brother Chris and his girlfriend, Jessica. The worship band was great and the message was too. We came home after church to eat with Chris & Jess before they got on the road (a restaurant on Mothers' day would take hours). We had a great weekend with them, some shopping, some movies, some Catchphrase...

Since lunch Jeff & I have been lounging around while Roman is napping and Trey is having quiet time, then later we'll go to the park to play or the pond to feed the ducks.

Here's a funny little story from a couple of mornings ago: We woke up feeling lazy, so we let the boys come get in bed with us, along with Nala, who lay down by my feet. The boys were jumping on the bed and laughing, and I put my feet up on Nala. Trey touched my leg (I hadn't gotten the in shower yet and therefore hadn't shaved). He told me "Momma, don't put your feet on Nala, your legs are all pokey and they will hurt her." Thanks Trey!

Swimming!

Yesterday Trey had his swimming class. He's amazing. It's a six week class - once per week, and it's a parent class, meaning I go in with him. This was our fourth week. We have so much fun together. Yesterday he was the star of his class once again. He spent half the class telling me "let go Mommy so I can swim by myself"! Of course, he has flotation devices on him, but he was the only one telling a parent to let go! I was a proud momma.

Right now he's out with the neighbor running through the sprinkler. He's adorable with his skinny little body and no shirt on.

Roman has become interested in the potty. Yesterday he told me "Pobby Momma, pobby", his diaper was dry, I put him on the potty and he peed and pooped. Talk about proud momma, he's only 18 months! I'm not going to push it at this point, but maybe he'll potty train easier then Trey did. My mom says maybe I earned an easy one after Trey!

In a couple hours Jeff's brother Chris and his girlfriend Jessica will be here for the weekend. Chris only has one more week of leave before he goes back to his base. Jeff's especially excited to have him coming down. It'll be fun.

Off to finish the cleaning...

PS

PS - my husband is amazing. I got home from coffee and the boys were bathed and asleep already and the kitchen clean. :)

Thanks girls

So apparently a couple of my girlfriends thing it's amusing that I'm writing in a blog because they seem to believe there is a lot of drama in my life. You know who you are girls. :) Maybe they're right though, it does always seem to be something, doesn't it? At coffee tonight (thank God for Starbucks and girlfriends when Momma needs a night out!) we were talking about Roman's latest trip to the ER and Ann wanted to know how many times in the past year I've been to the emergency room. I don't know off the top of my head, but I do know that I have not been a patient in an ER for years. Knock on wood. It just seems like I take other people quite often.

It was a rough day today. The kids were a little off their game, Jeff was not around, work's been crazy for him too, it was just not an easy day. I did add black-out liner to the boys' curtains though, the summer sun shines right in their window in the morning and wakes Roman up earlier then I think he would otherwise. I can't complain though, they're great sleepers.

Deb brought Ava over for a little while today, that baby is in love with Trey! She smiles every time she sees him! It's adorable.

Off to see what's going on with American Idol... go Blake!

Here I am

I've been posting blog entries on myspace, however, friends and family who don't want a myspace account can't access it. So I thought it might be fun to try a new blog site and see if I like it.

Sunday was our seventh wedding anniversary. It was a great day. The weather was nice, we went to church, hung out with friends and then left the kids with friends while we had a date. It was really nice.

Yesterday I put deck sealant on our porch. I power washed it a couple of weeks ago. I was exhausted when I was done yesterday. It's not a big porch, it took three hours, but I was beat. I came in and fell asleep on the couch. Jeff came home and woke me up - fifteen minutes before I was supposed to meet a girlfriend for dinner! Thankfully the restaurant is pretty much in our backyard so I jumped in the shower, threw on some makeup and still made it there.

Today is supposed to get up to 80. I just filled the kiddie pool for the first time this year, the boys are going to be so excited. :)