Date Night

Since I had to go to school to get ready for Parent-Teacher conferences the night of my birthday, John made plans for us to go out on the weekend. He wanted to surprise me, but I couldn’t handle not knowing, so he finally caved. Since we typically go to two larger nearby towns, he decided we needed a change of pace.

We took the kiddos to my mother-in-law’s house and then headed in a completely different direction.

The kiddos took our pictures before we left.

We ate at a tiny BBQ place. John had made all our plans based on places he found online. He wasn’t thrilled with the Harley-Davidson decor, so we ate outside in a gazebo. It was cool and rainy, but we were dry and it was great to see all the beautiful trees and colorful leaves. We had a little squirrel that was trying to entertain us, as well.

Since no one else was outside with us, we had to take our own picture. :)

Then, we drove around for a little bit before we went to the movie theater. We saw Life as We Know It. It really liked the movie, but I think I cried through half of it.

Afterwards, we headed to a tiny frozen custard place on the square.  It was so nice to get out with John and have non-interrupted adult conversation. We realized that we hadn’t actually dated in over two years. Yikes! We definitely need to get out more often, just the two of us.  I know a huge part of it is my fault because I feel guilty leaving the kids. However,  as they are getting older, I know they are okay. I can leave them and know they are having a great time and they don’t need me for everything. It’s good for them, too. 

I can’t wait to go out on our next date soon! I soooo love this man!

Labor Day Weekend 2010

This weekend has been wonderful! Despite the fact that I have been sick almost half the time, I have managed to get things done around the house and have some wonderful quality time with my family.

On Friday, I got home later than usual from school and I wasn’t feeling well, so John watched the kiddos and I took a nap and slept for several hours. It was nice to wake up feeling halfway decent.

Saturday, I cleaned out my side of the garage. I’m not quite finished, but I was in complete simplify mode. John will have to haul off several truck loads of stuff for me, but it was so nice to begin making a dent. I would like to go through all my seasonal decoration bins sometime soon, too. I may be able to park in the garage again soon! :)

While I worked in and out of the garage, the kids played outside. Cole worked on pricing toys for Granny’s yard sale and Audrey kept herself busy playing with the cats and dog and rummaging through all of Cole’s old toys. John also cleaned off the bouncy spring horse for her to play on. It was cute! Cole use to bounce himself silly on it.

Today, we went to Granny’s for lunch. I looked through old photo albums with John. It was cute watching him reminisce. After that, we headed out for a scenic road trip. We ended up going to the Windyville store, several yard sales, Bennett Spring, McDonald’s for fries and back home. I had a migraine from about 4 PM until almost 10, so I was ready to get back home.

Here are some of the pictures from today.

We had to take pics at the Windyville Store again since Cole’s eyes were closed last time. :)

When we zoomed in on this picture, we laughed and laughed at Audrey's expression when she was looking at Cole. If we only knew what she was thinking.

Doesn’t eating a Sugar Daddy from a general store just scream childhood?

John wanted to show the kids where the spring at Bennett Spring met the Niangua River. Can you see the color difference? The lighter blue in the front is the spring and the brown in the back is the river.

This was John’s first weekend off since he was laid off. I hope that the next 4-5 months go by slowly. I want my family to be able to spend lots of time together before John has to go back to work. There is nothing I like more than spending time with my family.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

This isn’t what I meant…

Last week I asked John to be the strong one. I asked him not to bring home any soda, even if I begged and pleaded. I told him that I needed him to help me, not enable me. If there is soda around, I will drink it. Actually, I probably drink more than my fair share and maybe even blame Audrey for all of it being gone. :)

So, last night, John and Cole went to the grocery store to pick up some tortilla chips and cheese for taco soup.  This is what I saw when I walked in the kitchen.

He’s funny and all, but did he really think this was going to stop me?Did I mention that I needed someone to be strong? I’m pretty sure I’m going to drink both bottles now just to spite him. Ha!

Once upon a pond..

….there were finally duck footprints. For the first time today, I saw ducks at the pond!!! I was so excited!

I admit, I was starting to have a little pond envy. It seemed that all the ponds around us had ducks or geese, except ours. I even asked Cole on the way to school one day, “What is our pond missing that everyone else’s pond has.” He replied, “Geese.” He’s so funny!

After John came home from work tonight, we took a walk down to the pond to check everything out. Tomorrow, the pond is going to be stocked with catfish and grass carp. Currently, it only holds crawdad and deafening frogs. Oh, and maybe a few hundred rocks that everyone has thrown in. :)

I love watching the ripples from the splashes the rocks make.

This is my favorite picture below.

Audrey demanded to wear her boots and church dress to the pond. This reminds me of climbing trees in a velvet jumper when I was a little kid. Partly girly, partly tomboy.

John did not want his picture taken. He had just gotten off work and hadn’t showered yet. Regardless,  I think they all look pretty cute, myself.

 

Last year, when we got the estimate for the pond, I am pretty sure I freaked out. It was twice as much as what we were expecting. Low and behold, a portion of the pond was unable to be dug out because it rained immediately after the first few days of digging and it was already filling up. This meant that the tractors could not get in without getting stuck. So, the cost ended up being right around what we were initially thinking it would be. I felt bad, really bad! I spent time being angry thinking the pond wasn’t something that was ‘necessary’. Now, I look at it and all the times we’ve visited and I know that there are years of memories to be made here. I am pretty sure that memories are necessary and you can’t put a price on that.