Summer 2011

Wow, I am always surprised when I look back at this and see how much time has passed since my last update. That could either mean that so much has been going on in our lives that I haven't had the time to update it, or that it has been so absolutely boring there is nothing to share! The girls are out of school for the summer. Hannah is now a middle-schooler!!! I cannot believe my little girl is going to be hanging out with Junior high school aged kids now. Scares the beejeezus out of me. I liked it so much better when I was the main influence in her life!! Amelia is going to be on her own at school this year. So far she has always had Hannah there to lend her a helping hand, but this next year she will have to be responsible for herself. That is kind of scary. She is just a little to carefree to ever be confused for responsible, LOL. I am sure she will be fine. She is one of those people that can do whatever she needs/wants to, but as long as someone else is willing to do it, then why bother?!

We have had a fairly uneventful summer so far. Last week the girls spent several days at Tracy's hanging out with the cousins. We capped the long weekend off with a fireworks show on the night of July 4th. Luckily many of Tracy's neighbors had splurged for the really fance fireworks, so we got a nice show and never even left the house. The girls had some really small fireworks (like sparklers and such) to keep them busy for a while. And when we left, even tho they had been there for about 4 days, they were already asking me (as we were pulling out of the driveway) when they could go back to visit again. I am so thankful Tracy is willing to put up with all 5 girls at a time every summer. It is one of the things they most look forward to every year. And even tho they are fighting with each other by the end of the visit, I really believe they are creating some of the best memories of their lives. I wouldn't trade anything for the memories of all the time I spent with my cousins when we were growing up.

The girls have also spent a good amount of time at the beach already this summer. Steve's parents have a condo at Flagler Beach, so he has taken the girls up there 3 times already, and they are going for a week long visit for Hannah's birthday next week. I will miss having them here, but I know they will have a great time. But they never take any pictures, so I won't be sharing any of those!!

Anyway, I am going to hopefully get a few new pictures uploaded to the site from the past few months. Hope everyone is doing well. Take care!!

NUBBIN

On a very sad note, we just lost our sweet girl, Nubbin this last weekend (Nov. 13, 2010). She had been with me for 14 years. I had her before I was even engaged. So she shared all of the big events of my life with me (marriage, kids, moving, new pets, etc..). She was a pit bull/english bulldog mix, and was deaf from birth. Lots of people would shy away from her because she resembled a pit bull more than anything else, but Nubbin was anything but scary! She was one of the sweetest dogs you could meet. The most dangerous thing about her was her breath! She was so tolerant of the girls when they were babies, even though she was not that crazy about babies. And she was such a help with baby animals we brought home from the zoo to care for. We have video of her trying to get an Axis deer fawn to play ball with her. She could have easily hurt him, but that never seemed to cross her mind. As a result of being deaf, she could sleep like nobody's business. This is evident in the pictures below. And nothing made her happier than to be right beside you. There were times I complained because I could not turn around without falling over her because no matter where I went, she was right behind me. But now that she is gone, I miss having her here. Every morning when I get up, I look to make sure I am not going to step on her, only to realize she is not there. We are really going to miss her, and there will never be another one quite like her. Thanks for letting us be your family for so long Nubbin.

Me, Hannah and Nubbin in Gulf Breeze

Nubbin and Leah after our New Year's Celebration

Nubbin

HALLOWEEN 2010

Since the last blog, the girls have almost completed the first half of the school year!! Is time going as fast for everyone else as it is for me? It is already Thanksgiving this week, and that means Christmas is just around the corner. I am not ready yet! It seems like once Halloween arrives, then time just flies from then until the end of the year. It doesn't help that Halloween decorations are on sale in the store right next to the Christmas decorations. And speaking of Halloween, ours was a good one this year. Hannah and Amelia were both witches, as was Chloe, my "adopted" daughter from next door. They had planned to go as the 3 Blind Mice, but somewhere along the way, plans changed. I didn't care as long as I didn't have to make a costume! They looked cute and got sooo much candy. Hannah wanted to carry a pillowcase for her candy. Nobody needs that much candy. As it is, they are still eating on it tonight as I type. I think dentist are behind the whole Halloween candy thing. It has to really be good for business. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the night, in case you have not seen them already on Facebook.

Hannah

Chloe and Amelia (and friend)

Amelia, Hannah and Chloe

Messed it up....again

I have put these posts on in the reverse order. I have tried and tried to figure out how to swap them so they are in the right order. I obviously am not smarter than the blog.

Our Summer Trip to Alabama

In August we took a trip to Alabama to see my cousin Earlene (in Birmingham) and to visit with my friend Jim in Tuscaloosa. I was so excited to take the girls to Tuscaloosa, and to take them to the campus of the University of Alabama to show them where I went to college. And they seemed excited about going. That was until they actually got there and stepped out of the truck into the heat. Now remember, we live in Tampa, FL. A sub-tropical climate, where the heat and humidity are oppressive on a good day during the summer. Well, you would have thought I had taken them to vacation on the Sun!!! It was "too hot" and they wanted "to just go home" the entire time we were at the university. I managed to drag them around the stadium and do a little bit of sightseeing before they began to melt. I enjoyed my visit in spite of the whiney-hineys I had with me! Jim was a great sport about walking around in the heat, and then he turned into the hero of the day when he suggested we go get ice cream!! We went to a place called "Yogurt Mountain" where you serve yourself and you get to put whatever toppings you want, and as much as you want, on your frozen yogurt. Then when you go to pay, they weigh the cup and charge you by the pound (ok, really by the ounce, but I think Amelia was closer to the pound measurment!). Well, I have to admit, eating a tub of blueberry cheesecake frozen yogurt, in the air conditioning, was a bit more pleasant than melting the soles of our shoes onto the stadium sidewalk!

Amelia and Hannah at Bryant-Denny Stadium

Amelia giving her honest opinion of her visit

Hannah acting like her dad (it is impossible to take a decent picture of either of them)

The next day, I once again insisted we go out into the heat and go to Moundville. It is the site of an ancient Indian civilization. I went there in the fourth grade for a field trip and remember thinking it was a very neat thing to see. I really thought Hannah would enjoy it, even if it was not Amelia's cup of tea. By the end of the day, they both were saying it had been lots of fun. I am glad we went. It is always surprising to me, however, to go back to a place that I have not been to since I was a kid. It always seems so much smaller and less amazing than I remember it. But it was something the kids have never seen, and I am sure they will have memories of it forever, just as I have. Hannah got an arrow head for a souvenier. Luckily we took a picture of it right after she got it, because that was the last time we ever saw it. We stood on the banks of the Black Warrior river and yelled across. This was the first time either of the girls had ever experienced hearing their echo! That was the highlight of the day, no doubt. I am sure the people down below trying to enjoy a quiet afternoon on the river took great pleasure in listening to my kids yell at themselves for about 10 minutes. But that is the price you pay to hang out in such a cool place!

Darn, This is Hard Work!!

I decided it was time to update the blog. That was about an hour ago. I have been trying to change my background with the new, "easy" design tools. I had to call Tracy and get her to get on her computer to try to help me figure this out. I finally gave it up, and went with the only background that I could make work!!

I am surprised every time I get on here and look back at the date of my last update. I cannot believe how fast the time flys by. The girls both finished school with flying colors, and we enjoyed the summer. We did not do many exciting things, but we did have a couple of visits from friends, and we made a trip to Alabama in August. The girls got to spend most of the summer at home this year. The last few years they have gone to visit family for a week or so at a time throughout the summer, hardly spending any time at home between trips. While this has been a necessity for me (to have someone to watch them while I was at work), they have missed just being able to hang out at home and do nothing. And I missed them while they were gone. So this year we got to spend the majority of our time together. They still spent their time with Steve every week. They got a couple of Disney trips in during the summer, and we went to the beach a few times. But before you knew it, summer was over and it was time for school to start again.

The school the girls have been going to, Sanders Memorial Elementary School, was a very old and outdated facility. Although I really liked it (as it reminded me of the school I attended as a kid), the powers that be decided it was time to tear it down and rebuild it bigger and better. So this year, they went to a new school, Connerton Elementary, that is located in the neighborhood just north of ours. It is a brand new school, with all the amenities that Sanders did not have. Their old school will be under construction for the next two years, at which time I think Amelia will go back there, but Hannah will be in Middle school by then so she will be in a different school anyway. (Yikes!) I don't think the girls like it as much as they did the old school, but I am sure once they have been there a while and have made memories there, it will be special to them too. It takes about 5 minutes longer to drive there from our house, and goodness knows, that 5 minutes can make or break you on beating the tardy bell in the mornings. And God Bless Amelia, she is the absolute slowest person in the world when it comes to getting ready for school. We race the clock every day that I take them to school. You would think that I should just wake up earlier, right? I thought the same thing. But it seems this just makes her move slower because she has more time to get ready!!! I feel sorry for her when she has to move out on her own and be responsible for getting herself to work. I truly think she is going to have to work at night if she ever plans to get there on time.

Amelia in the morning.

We spent some time at Tracy's over the summer. Daddy came down for a few days, so we went over there to visit and get in "some hang time" with Daddy Hawk. Sounds funny for a summer activity in Florida, but we went ice skating while we were there. The girls all had fun doing that. Rachel smiled the entire time she was on the ice. They had little "walkers" you could rent to help you stand up on the ice. She had one of those and she just really had a good time going round and round the rink. It made things much easier for Tracy as well! Of course when Amelia saw the walker, there was no question in her mind that she could not skate an inch without one of those to hold on to. I think we ended up with 3 of them, and the girls all took turns using them. For a bunch of kids from Florida, they all ice skate pretty well if I do say so myself!! I thought I would attach a couple of pictures from that outing, but I guess Tracy has all of those on her camera!! Well, trust me... We had a good time! Most of the visit was spent with the girls in the pool at Tracy's house. Thank goodness for that pool. It keeps them busy for hours a day, and they are not complaining about the heat. Aside from them taking turns being grumpy about who was "it" when they were playing "Marco Polo" (which is THE most annoying game ever invented!!!!), they all enjoyed swimming and worked on their diving skills as well. Daddy Hawk never got in the pool He said he would go swimming, but his "bathing suit had a hole in the knee".

Hannah, Allison, Rachel, Leah and Amelia

Rachel and Hannah

Hannah diving

Leah enjoying her turn as "It"