Ella’s 1st S’more

eating a smore!

mmmm...messy!

Bad car accident

Jeff went fishing with some friends over the weekend.  They left Friday night and they came home on Saturday night.  Jeff called me around 8pm or so and said that they were headed back.  He called again around midnight and said that they were in a wreck… an older man ran a red light and T-boned them at an intersection.  He said everybody was okay… so I went back to sleep, he called again about 45 mins later and said they were all going to go to the hospital just to get checked out and he asked if I was going to come pick him up… well I said isn’t there anybody else who can bring you home?  A. I would have had to wake Ella up and by this time it was around 1am… and B. he made it sound like it wasn’t that serious.  I should have called my in-laws to see if one of them could have came and sat with Ella until we got home, but I didn’t really even think about it until later in the day on Sunday.  Needless to say, I feel really bad about not going up to the hospital.  I should have went.  Thank god none of them were seriously injured but some of them are having problems.  Luckily Jeff was wearing his seat belt.  He was in the back seat and he never wears his seat belt in the back.  He said he put it on because he was going to sleep.  He woke up to two of the guys screaming and he said he keeps hearing them scream.  Our friend Lenny, has a swollen spleen and he is supposed to be going back to the hospital today, Lenny’s brother’s head is hurting pretty bad, he has been vomiting ever since it happened and he has a hair line fracture in his back.  The other guy broke two ribs.  Jeff is bruised up pretty bad and both cars ending up being totaled.  I just thank god that everybody is okay.  The police officers said if they had been in a small car (they were in a ford expedition) they would have been killed.  That’s the second ford that Lenny’s family has had a wreck in and both times they have came out okay… so it seems like that is a good vehicle.  Please say a prayer for all of them to feel better very quickly and for the insurance process to go as smooth as possible.  Thank you.

Ella’s Dance recital

So the day finally came for Ella’s big dance debut!  We were so excited.  We started the day out by going to Cracker Barrel for a Father’s day breakfast.  We had to scoot on out to get Ella ready… I curled her hair and put make up on her.  We had fun and she looked soooo cute!  We arrived backstage kinda early and it was a while before we found anyone else in her dance class.   So it was neat to be around all of the other “big” girls in their dressing rooms.    Finally we found two other girls that was in Ella’s class, I left her with the teacher and I went to go find Jeff and our family.  So, I’m sitting there watching the other girls dance and then I see my friend Jessica and she said she had just been backstage and that Ella was really upset and crying pretty hard.  So I rushed backstage to find Ella and sure enough she was very upset.  She was crying because a bunch of girls backstage were screaming and loud noises really scare her.  Her teacher was great though, she took her to her own personal dressing room and put make up on her and did a really good job of calming her down.  After that I was very nervous about whether or not she would even dance.  But she did!  And she did great.  I have a few pics of just her but they are pretty dark.  This one is my favorite, you can see the little muscle in her leg as she is pointing her toe.    She did such a great job.  The whole class did.  When they had rehearsal and even just showing the parents in class it seemed that sometimes they were all over the place but they did a great job at the recital.  A ton of girls in different routines were just standing there and not really doing anything but all the girls in Ella’s class did the routine.  We had some professional pictures made at the rehearsal and I got to see the proofs to pick which one I wanted to order and they turned out great!  I can’t wait to get them back.  After Ella’s class finished their dance we took some pictures in the lobby.  Gerry bought Ella some flowers and she loved them.  She didn’t want to give them up to take pictures.    You can see from her face that she is still in a little bit of a bad mood from being upset at the screamers.    I changed her clothes and we took her back into the auditorium for a little while to let her watch some other girls dance.  She loved watching them.  We stayed through about 4 dances or so.   Gerry ordered us the recital video so at least she will get to watch more of it at home.  Dance should start again in late August or early September.  I hope that she will have a tap routine for the next recital. 

Ella’s new ride, the Discovery Place and a trip to the ER

Wow, we have been so busy!  Wednesday my Father in law and his girlfriend came into town.  The last time Ella was around Gerry was her birthday last year.  She wasn’t really shy around him this time but she didn’t really want to give him a hug or get too close.  She seemed to really take to his girlfriend Terri.  Thursday while Jeff and I were at work, they took Ella on a mini shopping spree.  You should see all of the stuff that kid came home with.  I think she cleaned Sanrio’s Surprises out!  That night we went out to eat at Carrabba’s .  I love that place!  That was the first time we have taken Ella there.  They give kids pizza dough to play with.  Everything was cool at first but next thing you know she is rubbing it back and forth in between her hands and they were so sticky and covered in dough, it was a huge mess!  It was hard to get it off of her and the server brought us a beverage napkin to wipe it off.  Uh, okay… are you kidding lady?  Anyway after that we went to Toy’s R Us.  Ella got a early birthday present from her Paw paw  Check out her new car!  She loves it!  And someone else does too!  This morning we went out to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel.  When we walked in Ella noticed this animal/ball thing rolling around all over the place.  It was a weasel ball .  Ella kept talking about it while we were eating and I told her she could have one.  She said it was going to be her 3rd pet and that she would sleep with it.  It was so cute, she held it in the truck the whole way to the Discovery Place.  There really isn’t that much to look at there.  I mean it is big and all and there is quite a bit that kids can be involved in but I just thought there would be more to it.  Here is Ella playing with a tornado!    And then here she is in front of a dinosaur!  She looks thrilled, huh?  We were going to watch one of the Imax films but they didn’t have much to choose from and I didn’t think any of them would be appropriate for Ella to watch.   And then last but not least, Ella got in the “Air chair”, you just sit in it and maybe go up 10 feet in the air… but in order to go up you have to press these buttons to lift you off the ground.  Finally it was time for her turn and she barely got up off the ground, she stopped pressing the buttons and started floating back down.  I am not sure if she got scared or what.  Jeff said she was set to go up, paused for a minute and started pressing them again to keep going up but by that time she was on her way back down.   We were all ready to go, so Ella and I stopped in the gift shop, picked up some space ice cream.  Gerry was having a hard time breathing.  We didn’t really know what was going on.  We went back home, took a rest for a while and then grilled out.  Terri had to drive back to Raleigh tonight.  Shortly after she left I went to the grocery store and Jeff called my cell phone and said that Gerry needed to go to Urgent Care.  Okay, why are there not any 24 hour Urgent Care’s our area?  So, we went to the emergency room.   Jeff had a few beers with dinner so he stayed home with Ella.   Lucikly the hospital took him in right away.  Turns out his asthma was bothering him.  They gave him a breathing treatment and some steroids.  We were there till right around 1am.  His breathing somewhat better the next day but it was still giving him a hard time… he did stop wheezing so the hospital visit did help.      

Baby birds

    We have a bird’s nest right outside of our front door.  It seems like it has been there forever.  Anytime you walk over to the door or if someone comes over the Mother bird normally comes flying out of the nest like a bat out of hell and there have been a few times we have been beak to nose!  It can be scary… So anyway I wasn’t sure if there were any baby birds up there or not, but the other day we noticed them.  It was so hot and their little heads were sticking up and they were panting from the heat.  I felt so bad for them, but what could we do… ya know, the mother would have had a fit if we tried to get close.  I told Jeff to give them some water!  But of course he said no…  I doubt they would have drunk it anyway.  Obviously I know nothing about birds!  Ella thought it was really neat to see them.  We counted 4 of them.     They don’t have their eyes open yet… it looks gross from all the twigs and dirt.  They look so weird to me and cute at the same time.  It looks like that have quite a bit of fuzz on their face.      

Cookies and Tea please!

Ella and I decided to make cookies the other night.  Nothing too fancy, just a good old Betty Crocker mix.  At the last minute I remembered that we had some red food coloring…we had just enough to make some of the cookies pink and swirly looking .  Note to self  – buy more food coloring.  I think it makes it fun for kids to eat food that they made into another color.  Next up – green pancakes!     So after we made the cookies, I was cleaning up and I noticed that Ella started bringing all kinds of toys and chairs downstairs.  She even had Jeff carrying chairs for her, so then after she was all settled, she starting setting up her tea party… this was one of the cutest things ever.  I always hear/heard about little girls doing this, but this is the first time that I know of that Ella has done this.    It was soooo cute, she was serving them (the stuffed animals/dolls) tea and cookies.  Ah, why didn’t I get the video camera out… I just now thought of that.  I am terrible at that kind of thing…. look at the little horse on the left! 

The Choice

So I just finished reading “The Choice” by Nicholas Sparks.  It was a great book.  I love all of his books.  Here is an excerpt… you should definitely check it out.   I just wished the book would have kept going and going. 

Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life — boating, swimming, and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies — he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door. Despite his attempts to be neighborly, the appealing redhead seems to have a chip on her shoulder about him…and the presence of her longtime boyfriend doesn’t help. Despite himself, Travis can’t stop trying to ingratiate himself with his new neighbor, and his persistent efforts lead them both to the doorstep of a journey that neither could have foreseen. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, The Choice ultimately confronts us with the most heartwrenching question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?

Whew….

Busy weekend!  Oh no, it’s not Monday again already?!  Seriously… our weekend’s fly by, way too quick.  Friday night we cleaned out our garage.  Exciting right?  Anyway the people who lived in our house before us left all of the paint in the garage… which was great in case we needed to touch something up but there is so much of it.  So much that it was starting to weigh down the shelves and I was afraid that it was all going to fall and land on my car… so we went through it all and cleaned it out.  It took forever.  My in-laws came over and took Ella to get ice cream.  Anyway while she was gone I went through some old boxes and found my roller skates aka “speed skates” that my Nannie bought me back in the day so I started skating in the garage.  It was so much fun!  I love, love, love to skate… I need to get some friends together and see if they want to go sometime soon.   Jeff doesn’t like it and won’t go with me ….

Anyway, Saturday I took Ella to dance and the parents got to go into the studio and watch the kids practice for the recital.  I can’t wait to see Ella up on stage!  I will post plenty of pictures.   Saturday afternoon my mom came over and picked up Ella.  She spent the night with her and had fun going swimming and going out to dinner at the Macaroni Grill.  After that Shannon picked me up and we had to run a few errands before going to Bunco.  We ate at Moe’s and then we were on our way.  This bunco night was different from what we normally do.  We were open to the public and the proceeds went to the charity, Wings of Eagles Ranch.  We had an okay turn out.  We were hoping to get 100 people but we only had about 30 or so people.  Debby (mother in law) and Amanda (Sister in law) came.  Hopefully they had fun.  None of us won any money but Amanda did win a nice gift basket.  After that was over Shannon and I went to TGIFridays.  We wanted to get a drink… you know what is so annoying about drink menus?  They never have any prices listed!  That gets on my nerves…so anyway we both ordered margaritas, they were huge and $7.50 to boot, we got some food and had a really nice chat!  She is great to be around and I always have fun with her. 

Sunday we went over to Debby and Byrds house.  We had dinner with Amanda and her family  because they are heading back to Oklahoma today.  We didn’t get to see them that much.. so hopefully next time we will get to hang out with them a little bit more.  After that we went back to the house and cleaned and cleaned some more.  This is awful but we still had Christmas stuff sitting in one of our spare bedrooms.  We never got around to putting it all back up in the attic so yesterday of course when it is 130 degrees up there, we decided to do it.  Actually we really had no choice because (Yay) Gerry (Father in law) is coming into town and he will have to sleep in that room.  He is coming to town next week.  He is staying in Raleigh a couple of days and then will head down to Concord for the rest of the week.  Ella is going to be thrilled.