My Little Slugger

Anderson's last baseball game was last night and he knocked in the game winning run! If you look close enough his eyes are closed! and the ball he hit is right in front of the second tree from the right. I know he watches the ball, but it probably scared his eyes shut when he hit it. He was pretty excited! He's really done well this year and loves the game! It makes me one proud mommy!

Things I Learned this Past Week

Boy, was it a week. From beginning to end there was never a dull moment. Below are mostly things I have learned from the week and/or reflections to look back upon.

1. Don't procrastinate. Sometimes I should just go ahead and do things to get them done because who knows what the days ahead hold.

2. Follow my gut...always. Especially when bad storms are happening in the middle of the night. I wish that I would have done that on Tuesday night when the storm hit and taken the kids downstairs in the laundry room. Everything was ok, but it could have been a lot worse.

3. We wanted a neighborhood with trees, but didn't think about the fact that 80 foot trees can be knocked over by storms. We have a smaller one hanging over our driveway and another very large tree that fell to the left of our house. It could have fallen onto our house, but we were spared.

4. One should always know where a battery powered radio and flashlight are located...even in the middle of the night and pitch black dark. We spent the entire time of the storm looking for these to see if there was in fact a tornado near. Note to self: make an emergency kit pronto!

5. Power is a wonderful thing to have and when you are without it (for let's say 41 hours) life gets all out of whack! Hence:
-curly hair for me=not a happy girl
-washing clothes: isn't getting done. It doesn't help when I've procrastinated (see item 1) for 5 days before losing power about doing laundry
-At least Walmart had power so I could go and buy "necessities" for our out of town trip for the weekend... necessities=undies (I just wasn't going to visit the laundromat!)
-it gets hot even in May
-The hubs burns candles without checking to make sure they weren't special candles.. They were only our 25th anniversary candles we got from my Sister in Law for our wedding to burn on our 25th anniversary....
-Saying bye bye to all of our cold food in the fridge and freezer wasn't fun. It was really hard throwing out the food I had bought the day before. At least I don't have a membership to Sam's or Costco and don't buy in bulk!
-Sometimes you just have to send the kids to school in wrinkled clothes.
-I had procrastinated (see item 1 again) to hem my dress for Uncle Nick's wedding and sewing machines don't work without power!

6. If one takes her sewing machine to a hotel that has power because she procrastinated (see item 1) one should remember the POWER cord. Packed up the machine so I could hem the dress and forgot the power cord and foot pedal. I'm guessing it was because it was so dark in the house when I was packing things up.

7. Even if it's cloudy on the beach in May and you are pasty white you should still apply sunscreen. Really... just do it. I achieved my goal of having color for the wedding, but didn't really want the color to be red.

8. The SC/US government should really do more background checks on who they give government assistance to. We were behind a girl in Piggly Wiggly (yes, that's a grocery store) on Saturday in Charleston and she was buying formula and diapers for a child with WIC money. She may have been 20 and was clearly pregnant AGAIN! We walked out to the parking lot as she drove away in her Jaguar!~Really, do more extensive checks people. Some people need to get their priorities straight. What's more important, taking care of your children or driving around in style? REALLY!

9. Wedding Coordinators should always attend the rehearsal. I have NEVER witnessed a coordinator be so nasty! She didn't have a clue what was going on b/c she didn't attend the rehearsal the night before... she just said, "we don't do rehearsals"... maybe "We need to get a new job"

10. When you go to that big box "bridal" store.. you know the one I'm talking about. Starts with a D and is my brother's name. Anyway, never order the size bridesmaids' dress that fits. Most likely 500 girls bigger than you have tried it on and stretched it out before you. It was roomy in the store and then mine comes in and WON'T zip! I got it to zip when I got home, but it was uncomfortable. Let's just say I was ready to jump out of my skin after wearing this dress for 7 hours. It was only tight around my ribs, but rib crushing doesn't begin to describe what it felt like. Being claustrophobic doesn't help either.

11. Sometimes it's good to have no expectations, because you may get what you have "not expected."

It was a crazy week! Storms, no power, sunburns all around and my brother in law took the plunge into marriage. This week has got to be calmer... I hope! I will have some pictures of the wedding up soon.

Chicago Trip

Brandon grew up loving the Cubs and after we started dating he soon turned me into a Cubs fan. Although they are never very "good" we still love them. Our first trip to Wrigley was after graduating College in 2001. We drove with a friend of ours up there and stayed with another friend in the burbs. Our second trip was in September 2007 and we stayed in Downtown Chicago. Staying downtown is lots of fun and kinda scary at the same time. We decided that for our 8th anniversary we wanted to go back to Wrigley for a few nights. This time in April, but boy that wasn't the smartest thing we've done. We left Charlotte's 80 degree sunny days for Chicago's 40 degrees rainy days... We managed to have fun though and relax a little. We left on Tuesday really early in the morning from Charlotte. I do not like to fly, but since we were only going for two nights, that was our only option. I had a mini panic attack after boarding the plane, but after sitting on the plane delayed for 1 1/2 hours I got over it. Once we landed in Chicago, we had to hop on the train to get to our hotel. We stayed right off Michigan Ave. this time, so it was perfect for shopping before we got ready to do the game. We caught a night game on Tuesday. It was COLD.... I didn't pack enough clothes, so I bought a Cubs hoodie the first night and proceeded to wear it the rest of the trip, hence why all of my pictures look the same!
We sat in the bleachers for the first game.

The outfielders chatting during a pitching change. The Cubs did lose this game, but we always had the day game on Wednesday...right????

We woke up to a cruddy day on Wednesday. Rain falling and the skies were grey! I could never live in Seattle...Anyway... We headed over to the ballpark to grab some lunch before trying to get some cheap tickets for this one.

Inside Wrigley.. hoping for some baseball to be played.

We got covered seat tickets for $10 a piece, but by game time they hadn't taken the tarp off of the field. It wasn't even raining at game time???? About 30 minutes later, it started to lightly rain and we continued to wait, and wait and wait.... still sprinkling rain.

And then the announcement was made! Postponed... Really, we flew 700 miles to watch a baseball game and it gets rained out...really!!!!! REALLY! They only waited an hour after start time to call the game. We decided since we had flown 700 miles we were going to sit our hiney's in Wrigley as long as we wanted!!! About 30 minutes after they called the game it quit raining and didn't rain anymore the entire day! I just think the grounds crew didn't want to prepare the field! Booo hooo...Game to be made up June 27th..

So here are our sad face pictures

But, we did take some pictures

and more pictures

We were able to go back to the guy we bought the tickets from and sell them back to him for $5 a piece. So we only lost 10 bucks.. glad we didn't get those tix ahead of time.

After the no game we took a stroll around town in the cold....

They even have Qdoba's in Chicago

We found this Lamborghini... Someone had just given it a test drive.

We walked to the Navy Pier in the cold.

After our walk, we decided that we would go find some dinner. We had already tried out a lot of local food joints so we thought we would go to one "chain" type place. We pigged out at the Grand Lux Cafe. I knew I wanted dessert here, so I tried to talk B into splitting something, but we couldn't agree on anything. We both ended up getting pasta dishes and the apple pie with ice cream to split... What were we thinking?

We managed to eat all of the dessert. We couldn't finish our pasta though.. Come on, what's more important??

Thursday morning... here I am again in that same shirt. Only today it was so cold, I wish I would have brought my Winter coat. We got some bfast, and some things for the kids, before heading back to the airport.

Here's the hotel we stayed in. It was a cute little historic boutique hotel.

A big tall building.????

We ventured into the American Girl Store.. Lord help us if and when Aubree ever gets interested in these... REALLY... Lord help us!

Getting onto the train for the last time.

Waiting for the train to come zooming in.

There was always a "musician" performing wanting money.

And our last picture in pure Anderson picture taking form. This is how he would take all pictures if we let him.

We came home to a dead car battery in the long term lot with Brandon's sunroof mysteriously open... Who knows what happened. It wasn't opened when we left. Nothing was missing from the car but there was something left....rainwater from last night's storm. We got a airport employee to get the car started for us and we came home to the three sweetest children in the world. They welcomed up with open arms and were super excited to have mommy and daddy back! I think Mattie was pretty glad we were back too! We enjoyed our little getaway even if it was COLD, and the game was postponed.... I guess it was appropriate for rain water to be in the car when we got back...

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

Didn't the Lord give us the most beautiful day to celebrate? We did Easter Baskets first thing, but none of the pics turned out really good. After church we took some pictures outside, well most of us did. Aubree fell asleep on the way home from church, so she made an appearance later. She hasn't napped all week so she was beat!

Mommy's Sweet Boys

Yes, I managed to make it into a picture... or two!

Here's the one Anderson took of us... a little far away and fuzzy... he tried.

More on the porch.. They were starting to get annoyed with me.

Here's where Aubree was. Notice she has a rock lodged in her ear as well. Her pretty rock as she calls it that she got from Uncle Michael and Aunt Brandy when we went to Atlanta. She thought that would be a good place to keep it while she slept, I guess. It came out pretty easily though.

Once Aubree woke up(well kinda), I got a few of the three of them.

After church I cooked a big meal for us and the Holby's and we hung out all afternoon hiding eggs, and playing in the backyard. The big kids (parents) even had a football throwing contest and Jenn and I managed to soak up some rays.. Made us wish one of us had a pool in the works. It was a wonderful day! Hope you had a good one too.

This week Brandon and I are off to celebrate our 8th anniversary a few weeks late with a trip to Chicago to see the Cubs. Forecast is rain all three days we are there, so we'll pack the ponchos and keep our fingers crossed for no rain during game time! Go Cubbies!

Hot Mess!

That's what she is these days! A big Hot Mess! This little gal is keeping us on our toes over the last few weeks. She has decided that if she wants something she will just get it herself. She has also decided that she will do it in the middle of the night as well. About two weeks ago, she stopped sleeping through the night and started roaming the house. First it was roasted peanuts she got into at 2 am, cracked them herself and ate them (ok... I know that's dangerous). My kitchen floor looked like the Texas Roadhouse. Then it was me catching her in the pantry just like the pictures below with her hand in the peanut butter jar going yum yum. Several nights she turns her light on and climbs on top of her dresser and plays with her piggy bank. Last night we were at our wits end and taped all of her lightswitches down so she couldn't turn on the light in her room and get in trouble (we had to lock her in too). Horrible, I know... Anyway, I caught her today in her tu tu in the pantry and just had to capture the moment to blackmail her with one day! In that red Valentines day would be Anderson's candy stash from his Vday party at school... Wonder what tonight holds.

Just trying out my new camera after church today! What a beautiful day we had!

Lake Wylie Pilot

As I pulled up to the mailbox today and rolled down my window like I do every day after picking up Anderson from school I got a pleasant surprise. It was the normal Wednesday sales flyers and our local newspaper called The Lake Wylie Pilot. To my surprise staring back at me on the front page was Anderson! His class (sitting on the carpet in their classroom) was on the front page showing off their Cat in the Hat outfits. The photo only caught about 8 or 9 of the kids wearing their Cat in the Hat hats that they made for Dr. Seuss's birthday. Anderson also had on a Cat in the Hat shirt that I had appliqued for him to wear that day. We were told on Sunday night, that they could dress up as their favorite Dr. Seuss character on Wednesday, which he really wanted to do, but my brain couldn't think that quick. I've been super busy with the Upscale Weesale, Sew What Mommy and just being a mommy in general that I didn't have time to put together a costume. So, I just went with what I knew and bought him a white tee and did a Cat in the Hat applique. It turned out really cute and he loved it! I'm glad the photographer found my little guy to capture for the pilot.