1st week of school...

I'm learning that no matter what your position is regarding school, it is always hectic! Teacher, nurse, principal, bus driver, coach, MOM, DAD...you get the point. Everyone seems to run around like mad! So, thank goodness the 1st week is almost over, never to be seen again (until next year, of course).

Josh is growing into such an awesome young man...I can't believe I'm calling my baby boy a 'young man'. His elective classes are Agriculture and Drumline. He has been really wanting to be in AG since we've been here...finally, now we'll see how it goes! As for drumline, I am so glad for this class. For any of you who may not know my 'baby boy', he's not the type to just relax. He is constantly in motion. And believe me when I tell you, he has ALWAYS been this way...since conception, I am not kidding! Even when he's not running around, he's tapping on something. He is always tapping on something! As hard as I try to just ignore it, I just can't. I cannot just ignore the constant tapping of a pencil on the cabinet, his foot on the floor, anything...it just drives me insane! So, thank God for drumline! He gets all of this tapping out...and it is a class in school. Where he gets a grade for it! I knew all of his 'practice' for all these years would pay off, eventually. HaHaHaHa...I still can't stand tapping!

Camille...my baby girl, Cami. O my goodness. I thought this baby girl would be at home with me forever! We are all still adjusting to her schedule. She's had good days and bad days. She's had great nights and not-so-great nights. It has just been all over the place this week. Never knowing what to expect next. I guess that's what Mom's of girls experience, huh? WOW...boys and girls are so different! Seriously, Josh was still my baby boy in most of elementary. Cami...ha...she thinks she's grown! Overall, though, she's doing well. She adores her teacher. She seems to enjoy her classmates. It melts my heart when I walk up to the 'exit' door to pick her up for the day, and she runs into my arms saying "Moooommmyyyyy"! I love it! And let me tell you how simply adorable she looks in her school uniform! Just precious! You'd think that kids who wear uniforms to school would have a relatively easy time choosing clothes in the morning? Not so much with MY daughter! Basically, there are 4 choices...and I guess this is too many. Skort, jumper, shorts or pants...that's it. And the colors and designs are the same. Cami LOVES the skort...and wants to wear that every day! At least we can change up the hairbows :)

So, now I should be more productive during the day...except for my work schedule that keeps me playing 'catch-up' during the day at home...but that will be better soon. I hope. We'll get all moved this weekend, and hopefully things will calm down for us. Hectic is making me tired...I need just a little bit of a routine for a minute!

I'll post some pics from this week in another entry...I'm on someone else's computer right now and I don't have my memory card! I say that after I just went to the photo downloading icon and tried to look for my photos in 'my' folder...duh!

Our baby is 5...

It's been a little while since I've blogged...we have been crazy busy!!

John is driving the bus here, finally got his CDL. He will be making trips to Granbury to pick kids up in the morning and drop them back off in the afternoon. I will assist in coaching the Cheerleaders...AND we are moving back to a boys house soon!

God sure is teaching us a lesson in PATIENCE, a very important trait that I've never posessed before now...and I must say I'm not really good with it, yet. I'm working on it. God is surely working on ME.

Besides all of that...today was Cami's birthday party, our baby is 5!





We decided to have a cookout. John loves to grill, and we don't really have enough room to house a large group in our home...so, outside it was. It was HOT. Cami chose Barbie decorations. I ended up rushing around so much beforehand, that I didn't use more than 1/2 of the stuff I bought for the party. Refunds, tomorrow! Cami had a few friends from Pre-school come to her party, and her Pre-school teacher came and was Cami's suprise guest. Cami was very glad to have her. The kids drew with sidewalk chalk, squirted one another with water guns, played in the kiddie pool...and the final,big HIT of the the day...SLIP N SLIDE...they had an absolute blast! And, of course...cake and presents.





When all of Cami's guests left, we cleaned up quite a bit...but there is some left for tomorrow...we were really exhausted. Then, she and Lace kicked back and relaxed on the couch to watch "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Cami slept for an hour or so, but it wasn't quite enough, she was pretty cranky off & on for the rest of the night. We went to dinner with our friends, Emily & Brad. Got back home a little later than I had wanted to, but I guess it could've been worse. Lace got ready to leave and Cami started to just melt down. Oh my goodness...it was not a pretty sight. Poor thing, she really misses her big sister. She cried and cried. I layed down for a while with her, but she wouldn't go to sleep. We moved into the living room and Daddy rocked her for a couple minutes and she fell sound asleep! That's where she is right now, passed out with Daddy.



Tomorrow is Cami's first day of school and Josh's first day of Jr. High. I really hope Cami doesn't cry. I really, really hope she doesn't cry! Josh will be just fine...my little boy is not so little anymore. He is in AG this year, and SUPER thrilled about it. I am looking forward to watching my little ones learn and grow this year. I wish I could rewind the years sometimes, but since I can't, I'll cherish the moments I have.

I love my kiddos...all of them...and I have the greatest husband in the entire world!

The rest of our vacation...

I realized that I hadn't blogged in a few days! Let's see...

Wednesday was a day of shopping and just chillin' out! John's brother, Jack Jr., took us to the Smoky Mountain National Park. We went to a little part of the river, where you can swim and just relax in the cold water. We got some tubes for the kids and headed to the river. It was the best thing ever! I wish we had known about this spot earlier in the week. I think we would have visited this area more than once. It was not only beautiful, but tranquil and just amazing. Josh would walk upstream and ride the river down to where we were. He had so much fun...until his raft popped! He was going down a small waterfall area and he hit a rock. He had a great attitude though, and kept on exploring...this kind of thing is right 'up his alley'. Cami wasn't a huge fan, she's not too fond of water anyways...and cold water was definately not exciting for her. She was a trooper though, for the most part. Thankfully, Grandma didn't mind sitting with her in the most shallow areas. Grandma sat in the water and played with rocks with Cami. We all ended up having a blast that day. By far, my favorite day of the entire vacation!







Thursday, we cooked out again, washed laundry and packed. Grandma & Grandpa celebrated Cami's birthday all week! They 'casually' gave her a gift every day of the week. On this last day, she got 2. She was so excited...she was dancing around the cabin, singing "This is the best birthday of my life!!!"...so funny.





Friday, we left early in the morning to head home. We drove to Little Rock, AR where we found a Best Western and spent the night. We went swimming in the hotel pool that evening and went to dinner at El Chico's...Mexican, my favorite!!

Saturday, we finally arrived home around 3pm!! The kids were very ready to be home, we were too. It was really funny...I told the kids that we would need their help unpacking the car...Cami whined a little, so I said "Cami, you can either help out or you can go to bed", she was asleep within 10 minutes! I guess she really didn't want to help. When we got home, the kids did help out...and we actually unpacked right away! By 5pm, everything was put away and the dirty clothes were washing...I was very pleased.

I went grocery shopping today, there is never any food in the house when you return from vacation! Now, we are getting ready to get back to work...John had airport duty tonight, picking kids up from the airport. We're planning to 'try' to get our kids on a school-like schedule over these next 2 weeks. Josh starts back to football practice tomorrow, with two-a-days!! That will put him into schedule-mode because by 8 or 9 at night he will be so exhausted that he'll beg to go to bed! This will be the 1st time Cami's ever been on any kind of schedule! She is very excited about starting school. Our plan is to have Cami in bed by 8:30pm and Josh by 9pm. I'll get back to you on how that goes!!

Overall, our vacation was awesome! I think we're going to try to plan a vacation with Lace & Julian sometime in the next year. I'm sure we'll go back to Gatlinburg again, this was our 2nd trip and the stay in the cabin (vs the hotel) was much better. So relaxing...exactly what we needed!

Gatlinburg, TN...

We arrived in Gatlinburg, TN on Saturday afternoon (7/31) after driving in the rain for several hours! Not fun, especially in the mountains of Tennessee. We met up with Mom & Dad Minder and Jack Jr at WalMart in Pigeon Forge, TN to get groceries for the week. Then, we found our cabin and got settled in.

Sunday (8/1) we did some shopping in Pigeon Forge. Josh got his first pair of real boots! Grandpa bought himself a pair and the store he went to has this awesome deal...buy 1 get 2 free! John & Josh got a pair too. Dollywood was next. We spent several hours there. It was fun, but hot and way too humid. Being from Texas, the heat is something we deal with all summer. But the humidity is another story. It is so humid here, it feels like all of the liquids are literally sucked right out of your body within minutes! We dealt with it though...Josh went on with Uncle Jack to ride the 'big kid' rides, so unfortunately I didn't get any pics of him at Dollywood. John and I took Cami to the kiddie section of the park where she could only ride 3 rides! Not because she wouldn't ride them, but because she's too small to ride them. It's irritating to pay nearly full price admission for a child that is 4 but the size of a 2 year old...and the 2 year old is free! Amusement park prices should really be based upon height rather than age. It didn't seem to bother her too much though, when we told her she was too small to ride, she said "oh well, maybe when I'm 5"...lol...maybe! When we got back to the cabin afterward, we just relaxed...sat in the hot tub for a while (yes, eventhough it's hot out, it was still nice)...and then we all crashed.





Monday (8/2) was our full Dollywood day. Well, it was going to be...but we decided that it was really too hot to just hang out there all day. So, we went a little later in the afternoon. We didn't have as much energy that day! We met up with Nic & Tori and their family and some of their friends. We took Cami to play in the water, where she literally got soaked...she had a blast! Josh was a great sport that day...he didn't have anyone to entertain him that day, but his attitude was awesome. We left Dollywood in the evening and went to get dinner at McDonald's, then we headed back to our cabin for the night.



John's brother, Jack, went to have dinner with Nic & Tori on Monday evening. John was messing around the cabin and was playing with the black bear rug. He, being the playful guy that he is, decided that he was going to scare Jack when he returned for the night. Mom, Dad & I laughed SO hard watching him in anticipation for Jack to get back. We ended up sitting on the front porch when Jack pulled into the driveway...John was around the corner of the cabin (with the black bear rug draped over him, acting like a bear) wanting to sneak up on Jack to scare him. We started talking to Jack, acting as if nothing was going on when John started growling and scratching the ground...Jack realized it was him! It didn't work...but it would have been hilarious if it had! No matter how old brothers grow, boys will still be boys!



Today, Tuesday (8/3) was just a 'do whatever' kind of day. First, we drove into Sieverville (sp?) to the helicopter place. Jack wanted to take Josh on a helicopter ride as a suprise! We kept it from him the whole ride there. When we finally got there, Jack asked him if he wanted to take a ride...of course, he said yes! It was a quick flight, but I'm sure he'll remember it forever! His smile says it all...I sure do love my boy.





After the helicopter rides, we went into Pigeon Forge to do some shopping. We just browsed around...and I searched and searched for some jeans for Josh. That boy is growing like a weed...seriously, he is in a size 14 or 16 boys jeans depending on the style. Today I was looking for slim/bootcut...jeans for him to wear with his new boots that Grandpa got for him! I found some in a size 14, but they JUST fit. As fast as he is growing, he'll outgrow them before we get back to Texas! So, I wanted to get him the size 16's but, of course they didn't have any of the style that we liked. Skinny jeans don't look so hot with these boots! I guess we'll look some more tomorrow...because at that point I was tired of shopping.

We had planned a cookout with the whole family back at our cabin. We had hamburgers, brats and hot dogs. It was lots of fun! I got to hold little Colton for a long time...he is soooo sweet! Cami played with Nic & Tori's friends little girl, Bree...they played really well together. Josh just entertained the little kids for a while, then he ventured out and played games outside with the big boys. All in all, it was a great family dinner! I wish we could spend more time together. It stinks being so far away from your own family that we have to explain who these people are to our kids! I guess that internet is a good thing, a good way to stay connected. Anyways...we had a great evening. Now...my son is crashed on the couch, my daughter is snooring in my bed and I'm getting off here. I love my family...goodnight!