Tinkerbell has used up a few of her nine lives

Sandy trying to get Tinkerbell to drink something by making her jealous with licking noises. (It worked!)

I came home from Ocean Reef to a VERY sick cat. Apparently, Tinkerbell got into someones rat poison or ate a poisoned mouse. I took her to the vet where she had to spend the night. She is home now but she is not well yet. We are waiting to find out if she has permanent liver damage. We had NO hope on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. But she made an improvement Wednesday afternoon. We feel like she is improving a little every day. She is still not eating or drinking a lot. She's not out of the woods but we are hopeful. (Say a little prayer please! I really think that's what's kept her alive this week. Even Barbar's mom said a Rosary at church for Tinkerbell. To know Tinkey is to love her!)

Quick trip to Ocean Reef

At the last minute, I decided to fly down to OR to spend a long weekend with Len and Jaye and visit with Paula and Nancy who were visiting for the weekend with their parents. It got off to a REALLY rocky start. I got to the house around 10:30pm. At around 1am I started puking my guts out. This lasted all night long and through out most of the next day.....Note to self: When flying on a $29.00 discount airline DON'T buy one of those cute 5.00 meals. Odds are the pepperoni are bad.........I TRIED to rally at supper when Jaye lovingly fixed me chicken noodle soup. I did sit up about 15 minutes and consumed a 1/2 cup of soup before I went back to bed. Lucky for me, the next morning I was back in the land of the living and was able to enjoy the remainder of my stay. Thank you Len and Jaye for letting me come and stay with you! Len and Jaye make a handsome couple on the way to church.

Paula and Nancy relaxing by the lagoon.

Celebrating Paula's birthday!

Dr. and Mrs. Marks

Chris and Phil cooked every night! I felt so spoiled! Dinner time was too much fun. I have this picture of Chris and the one of Phil below. I neglected to get a picture of Chris' sister, Susan and her boyfriend Joe who were also visiting. I enjoyed getting to know them.

When I was getting ready to fly home on Monday Len gave me these two lemons he picked off the lemon tree in the back yard to give to the boys. I had NO IDEA if I could get on the plane with them???? I guess knobby lemons are not on the terrorist watch list because I had no problems. Len accused me of ditching the lemons as soon as I left the house. Here is the PROOF that they made it to SC!

shell shock

Tonight we had Le's Middle School orientation. I was sick to my stomach by the time it was over. I can't believe Le's old enough to be in middle school. I'm not prepared. I looked over at him. He looked SO sweet and innocent. The teachers look SO old, hard, and mean. It seems like the school is just push, Push, PUSH. They talked about stuff I didn't learn until COLLEGE. French, Spanish, Algebra, Geometry. They said colleges these days expect 3-4yrs of a foreign language. What the &!*# ! They also push the kids to be earning HIGH SCHOOL credits by 7-8th grade. Expect more work. Expect more homework. It's time to grow up. These were all direct quotes. Is it too late to start home schooling?

Wednesday night dinners

On Wednesday nights we join forces with our neighbors The Dietrich's (We call them the Von Trapps because they have 5 kids.) We alternate houses but pool resources for dinner. This week was at the VonTrapps. They had make your on kabobs. Sandy and I brought salad, rice, and cupcakes. Next week I'm making spaghetti and meatballs! I don't think Samuel likes his cupcake.......

I had two SAD boys this morning!

Last night it was all over the news. SNOW!!! One to three inches! The boys were TOO excited. They couldn't WAIT for morning. I too was looking forward to a day at home. I could sew while the boys played outside. Before the boys went to bed they did everything in their power to invoke snow. They put their pajamas on backward AND inside out. They each put a plastic spoon under their pillow. And they each flushed three ice cubes down the toilet. (Don't ask me where all of this started! I'm not going to worry until they feel the need to flick the on off switch 27 times before leaving a room. At that point I will seek therapy.) Dan woke up at 6am RAN to the window..............and burst into tears. "It didn't work! What did we do wrong? PLEASE don't make us go to school." The weird thing is that all the counties around us were out of school for the day! It appears the snow just skipped over us! I told the boys I think they need to keep the ice cubes in the toilet and not flush them! I dropped two very sad boys off at school and drug my very sad self to work. We'll revamp our ritual and try again soon!

Le and Dan walk on water!

Le and Dan laying on the cat fish hole. Dan SITTING on the lake!

Le and Dan hanging out by the dock.

If they could only get along like this all the time!

On the way home it snowed and snowed. It didn't stick to the roads thank goodness.

We stopped to fill up with gas in Knoxville. It was snowing huge flakes. The boys were standing at the back of the car catching snowflakes on their tongues. They were very excited. I had to explain to the car next to us, "We're from South Carolina. They have seen snow MAYBE twice. This is a big deal to them!"

Pa and Le watch football. (Le's team won.)

Le and Dan out for a hike.

Deer in the front yard.

This weekend was a four day weekend for the boys so we decided we would head to the farm. It was SOOOOO cold. It was five degrees Friday morning when we woke up. The cold worked to our advantage because schools were closed. Aunt Vivi was able to spend the day with us. It was really cool because the lake and cat fish hole were frozen. The boys spent several hours trying to crack the ice, slide rocks from shore to shore, slide themselves back and forth. It was a balmy 42 degrees on Sunday. The boys went on a nature hike all by themselves on the farm. I think they had more fun packing to hike. They had a sword (dull) for digging, coke and sprite, ziplock bags for treasures, binoculars, etc. Friday night we went to Vivi's for white chili. (YUM!) We watched a couple of movies and just relaxed.

An Expensive Trip to Atlanta

Last weekend we took the boys to Atlanta for the weekend. We met Yancey, Brian, Mckenna and Mckenzie. We had a LOT of fun. We had tickets to the King Tut Exhibit. We enjoyed it but I have to say it paled in comparison to the Ramses Exhibit we saw in Nashville a couple of years ago. We also took the kids to the World of Coca-Cola. That too was a good time. We stayed at the Sheraton Downtown. They had a great indoor pool where the kids spent a lot of their time. There was also a pool table on the club level that the kids made good use. What made the trip so expensive was that I LOST my camera. I'm SO sad. The last time I had it, that I remember, was on the club floor. I was taking pictures of the kids playing pool. (For this blogspot of course!) Apparently, I left it up there and now it's gone. The only good news is that I had downloaded all of the pictures on the memory stick before we left. So, there will be no pictures for a few weeks until I can find a decent priced camera to buy:(