Campmeeting =)

GRAYSON IN HIS WAGON. CUTIE!!!
ASHLYN PUSHING HER BABY STROLLER.
ASHLYN PLAYING WITH HER FRIEND ACCROSS THE STREET.
GRANDPA DRUM AND ASHLYN. PRICELESS!!!!

OK....

So no pictures yet. I couldn't get my computer to cooperate with me last night. I'll try again tonight.

I just need a moment to vent. I'll try to make it quick. =) I know that life throws you many curve balls, but geez. Can't a girl get a break? Our microwave - still broken. Our china cabinet - still no glass. While we were gone to the beach we had so much rain that our basement flooded. Britt and my dad had to pull up half of the carpet downstairs. It is completely RUINED!!We have only been in the house for a year now after a fire and now we have flood damage. One extreme to the other. UGGGHHHHH!!!!! So now we are going to have to tile it or something. Which is going to be a butt load of money. Then Britt was going to play golf in Hickory yesterday and his truck wouldn't start, so he drove his Dad's old Oldsmobile. He got to Hickory and then it died on him. He broke down on Hwy 127 and had to leave the car there. Thank goodness a friend was following him and he was able to have a ride home.

I know that things could be a lot worse. At least we are healthy and have a roof over our head. We have awesome friends and family. I shouldn't be whining and complaining, but it seems as if we can never save money due to something breaking. Really, am I just a drama queen, or does it seem as if it is always something? And not just a little something. It's usually something major. It's just so frustrating. You get knocked down and as soon as you get back on your feet, bam your down again.

Ok. I'm finished griping now. I'm just so happy that I have the campground to look forward to for the next week. Going out there helps take my mind off of everything for a while.

Ashlyn LOVES Campmeeting!!

I can't believe that I have found someone who loves the campground more than me. I can't get Ashlyn to leave at night. She could play and play and play. Oh my gosh she love it!!!
Here are a few pictures from the campground.

Pictures from our beach trip

Some words of wisdom and humor =)

1. My nickname at work is now Marilyn Monroe. Yes I showed my ass at work. I mean literally showed my ass. I wore a dress to work on Monday and walked out in the warehouse to get a snack. I felt a little breeze under there. Sure enough my dress blew right up to my back. LOL!!!! I turned around in a hurry to see if anyone saw me. Only April, a girl I work with, saw me. When I turned around she was laughing hysterically. She got a full moon, and by lunchtime everyone at work knew about it. That's how I got my new name. =)

2. Why do I attract the biggest losers ever? It seems like anytime that I am pumping gas or in line somewhere, the grocery store for instance, I always have the trashiest loser in the entire store hit on me. What is the deal? Yesterday I had a man walk up to me while pumping gas, and say "I told my girlfriend that I was going to come over here and talk to this fine girl. I'm trying to make her mad. So what's your name pretty lady?" LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!

3. I'm sooo ready for a vacation! Can you tell?

4. It's finally time for campmeeting! I just love this time of year. Everytime that August comes around I think of the campground. I have so many great memories there! I'm sure that this year will be one of the best yet. I'll probably lose about 10 lbs chasing Ashlyn around. =)

5. Girls another fashion tip. Stop paying to have your eyebrows waxed. Just buy the eyebrow shapers. They are peel off. No mess, no fuss. And so much cheaper. You get a box of 30 for $5. They work great too!

6. Why do we still not have our glass replaced in our china cabinet? And why is our microwave STILL BROKEN???? I swear there is not such thing as GOOD customer service anymore. Get with the program people!!!!!!

7. Why are all of my flowers dying from the heat and dry weather, but weeds are popping up like crazy? Am I the only one who wonders how that happens?

I Feel Good!

Horray!!! I feel so much better this week. I went back to the doctor last Thursday, and since my regular doctor was on vacation I had to go to another doctor at a different location. This doctor was amazing! I think that I may switch all of my records over to his office. He told me that he thought that I was probably having migraines maybe once a month, but he thought that my constant recurring headaches are severe tension headaches. He started me on a different daily medication, and also gave me something new for my headaches to take when they first start coming on. I couldn't believe how personable this doctor was. I felt like I could discuss any problems that I was having with him. I just feel like he really evaluated all of my problems and gave me the care that I've been needing all along.
I really do feel like a brand new person. I am still getting small headaches, but my new medicine will take a couple of weeks to start taking full effect. He told me to stop sweating the small stuff. Stress is a huge cause of these headaches. So anyways, hopefully this doctor was my saving grace. =)
I just wish that this week would hurry on up! We are leaving for the beach on Saturday and staying for a whole week. I am SOOOO READY!!! We are going with Britt's family. My parents are also coming down on Thursday, so they will also get to see Ashlyn at the beach this year. She is going to be loving life! I'm kind of worried about how she'll act when we get back home. She will probably be a little devil. She'll have both of her Nana's down there, Pappaw Drum, and her cousin's Reid and Alaina to spoil her rotten. Oh my!! =) We're in trouble!

South Mountain State Park

The waterfall at the top.

Sunday afternoon we went with another couple to South Mountain State Park. I had never been there before. The couple that we went with have a yellow lab puppy, so we decided to take one of our labs along with us to enjoy the trails. We decided to take Nate, since he is the calmer of the two. Well Layla went crazy when she saw that he was getting to go somewhere and she wasn't. I felt really bad. I know they are just dogs, but I told Britt that we can't show partiality, so we put Layla in the back of the truck and off we went. Three dogs, Steven, Rebecca, Me, Britt, and Ashlyn all piled in Britt's truck.

We got to the park and started our journey. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I thought that it was going to be a park with some walking trails and picnic areas. It was all of that plus a bunch of rocks and hills to climb. I started off carrying Ashlyn, but after about 10 minutes of that I was worn out. Britt and I switched. I told him that I would much rather walk the dogs than to carry her. She's light as a feather, but when you are climbing up a mountain in 90 degree weather 26 lbs can make a huge difference.
Sweet sweet Rebecca offered to help me out with one of the dogs so she took Layla and I had Nate. We stopped half way up the mountain and let the dogs go swimming in the river. Nate has OCD when it comes to water. Once he gets in you can't get him out. He just swims around and around. I've never seen a dog who loves the water so much. We finally got all of the dogs out of the water and were ready to head up the mountain. Well Layla decided to take take off running while Rebecca was climbing across the rocks through the river, and pulled her off of a rock right into the water. I felt so bad! She was ok, but I think her cell phone bit the dust.
After Layla acting like an idiot I decided to walk both of them. I did not want my spaz dogs causing anyone to fall off of the mountain. There were so many rocks and steps to climb. I just knew that if I fell the dogs would just drag me up the mountain.
We finally made it, and I didn't fall any. The waterfall at the top was beautiful. It was definitely worth all of the hard work!
After catching our breath we headed back down the mountain. I normally would not even think about jumping into a river in the mountains. Not that the water is nasty, but the thought of snakes in the water makes my skin crawl. But by that afternoon I was ready to hop in any kind of water that I could find just to cool off. The water was calling my name. I jumped right in (with my tennis shoes on my feet in fear of stepping on a snake). The water was ICE cold. It literally took my breath away, but boy did it feel good to cool off.
All in all it really was a really great trip. And the nice thing was that it was only about a 40 minute drive from the house. Next time we will have to leave either the dogs or Ashlyn at home. All three were about too much to handle. Ashlyn enjoyed it, but she was exhausted by the evening. I'm really not sure why because she didn't do any of the climbing. Britt and I should have been the ill ones. =)
It was a great way to end the weekend!

I Finally have pictures of Halle's Birthday Party!

John Luke with Mommy Marcie. Isn't he adorable? =)
Ashlyn with "mommy" Bibi and Halle
Ashlyn and Daddy
Halle opening her gifts with a little help from all of the other children.

No sympathy

I'm not trying to be a whiner (hmm hmm Kellie =0), but I got another small migraine yesterday, and I didn't complain all day long. I decided to give my Imitrex another try after the horrible experience that I had the first time I took it. I broke off a very tiny piece of the pill yesterday afternoon and just hoped and prayed that this little amount would ease my headache without making me feel as if my heart is going to jump out of my chest.
The medicine did help relieve my headache, but not like it did last week. Last week my headache was gone in 30 minutes. I also still had the same side effects, though not as strong, but I did still have them. Call me crazy, but I don't like feeling like my heart is beating out of control. I mean that's just scary. This medicine has been linked to causing heart attacks in some patients. I just think that there is something in this particular drug that does not agree with my body.
I didn't complain all night last night. Britt already says that I complain with headaches enough as it is, so I just dealt with it in silence. This morning the headache came back. I know now that I am NOT taking the Imitrex ever again, so I called the doctor's office to see if there is something else that they can prescribe for me. Just my luck the office is only open half a day all week, and since I called after lunch no one was there.
I hadn't talked to Britt all day, so I called him to see how his day is going. While we were talking I mentioned that I had another terrible headache and he proceeds to tell me "Big deal. My mom gets headaches all the time too. There's nothing wrong with you." Let me just tell you that I am about in tears right now. I just WISH that he could experience the pain of the headaches that I am having and then lets see what he has to say. I mean why can't he show me any sympathy? I'm not asking to be babied, but at least show me that you care!

Not the brightest bulb...

This is a good one.

Our phones are down at work. After one of our customers trying for a few hours to call and fax an order, he decided to email us to see if something was wrong with our phone line. A guy I work with emailed him back notifying him that we are having problems with our phones, but if he needs anything to just email us. The customer emailed us back the order with a note at the bottom. I swear this is what it read word for word - "I know that you are having problems with your phones, but next time please CALL (and it was in all caps) to let us know about these problems." WHAT?!?!?!?!?!

UGGHHHH!!!!

Remember the post that I put up a few weeks ago regarding our china hutch that we have been waiting on the glass to be replaced for a year now? Well Britt called the company today, by the way, the name of the company is Furniture Medics. We have to block our phone number when we call because they have our phone number memorized, and if they see it pop up they won't answer, nor will they call us back. Anyways he called the company with a blocked number and the guy answers right away. Funny isn't it? The guy just gives Britt the run around. Stuttering and everything because he doesn't know what to tell us. He's already told us EVERY LIE POSSIBLE! So to make a long story short, our glass is probably no where to be found now, and we'll probably never see it again. Unfortunately we are going to have to sue this company if we are ever going to have our dining room looking the way that it should. I mean why should it take a year and a lawsuit to get a piece of glass replaced? I just want to call them up right now and give them a piece of my mind. I am furious right now. It's just ridiculous! I guess we'll see what they do when they receive a letter from our lawyer (Britt's cousin). That sounds funny to say because it sound like something an asshole would say. I'm just sick and tired of getting the run around!

Random tidbits

1. My dogs are driving me insane. My parents bought us a new gazebo for an early anniversary present. The box hasn't even been open, but our dumb dogs decide to chew a hole in the box and tear out the canopy and play tug of war with it in our yard. NEVER BEEN OPENED!!!! Stupid dogs, but I love them. I have no clue why when they do crazy things like that.

2. Where does money go? I just got paid and I already don't have any money. After paying bills and buying groceries. It's almost all gone. When are we going to win the lottery? We ought to start a lottery pool like on Windfall! How cool would that be if we all won? =)

3. Ashyn Grace is a little jabber-box. She talks NONSTOP. I love it though. She has such a little imagination. The other day she had her Dora in the bathtub with her. I drained the water and got Ashlyn out to dry off. I had put Dora on the side of the tub to dry while Ashlyn was getthing dressed. Once Ashlyn was dressed she went to pick Dora up. She then looked at me with the most serious face and said "Uh Oh. Mommy, Dora needs to go potty. She just pee peed on me." She went over to the potty and tried to set Dora down to pee pee in the potty. Little did she know that it was just water leaking out of Dora from the bath, but it was TOO CUTE!

4. Less than 2 weeks before we go for our week long beach trip! I am so excited. I need a good long vacation. Yippee!!!

5. One more thing about Ashlyn. She can sing her ABC's perfectly and count to ten. She is so smart for just turning 2! I know I'm just being a bragging mommy. I have to brag about my little princess.

6. I love to clean. I swiffer every night, and I too like Moriah, get enjoyment out of having a dirty swiffer after I finish swiffering my floors. It just makes me feel like I've really accomplished my task. Crazy right?

7. I'm addicted to bargain shopping. I try not to go shopping very often, but when I do I am drawn to the clearance and sale racks. I LOVE getting more for the money. I've learned from the best. My mom started me at a very young age. She is the best bargain shopper I know. Well my aunt Annette is pretty good too!

8. My grandparents are the greatest ever! My Mammaw Sherrill has each of us a birthday dinner. She is the best cook ever. She would do anything for any one of us. She is truly an awesome lady. My Mammaw Drum has shown that miracles do happen. She has always been someone who I can talk to about anything. She has pulmonary fibrosis and was only give a year to live when Ashlyn was born. Well today she is still with us and going strong. She lives every day for Ashlyn Grace. I truly believe that this was the reason for Ashlyn's birth. Last but not least my Pappaw Drum. He is the best man ever! He loves doing things for others. He has done so many things for my family. He made Ashlyn's baby crib, a dollhouse (which was mine when I was a little girl), a pyramid trellis for my flower bed, flower boxes, a swing for Ashlyn, and many more things. He is the best woodworker that I know. I LOVE YOU ALL!

9. I am still dreaming up my children's boutique. I think about it everyday. Once I have a little money saved up it will happen. I get so excited just thinking about it. I know exactly how I want it to look. Oh I can't wait! What's a good name for it? Something unique? Moriah your good at this. Help!

10. I love Justin Timerlake's new song. I'll try to listen to it in my car, but all Ashlyn wants to listen to is country. She loves that old country song "Daddy's girl". It's so cute. She sings along with it. It makes Britt beam from ear to ear. We have to listen to it over and over again. She also LOVES Patsy Cline. My Mammaw and Pappaw Drum started letting her listen to that when she was probably 6 months old. She knows every word to every song on that tape. She asks to listen to Patsy Cline in my car all of the time. I love Patsy Cline too, but sheesh, not every time I go somewhere.

That's all for now. If I think of more I will add it on later. TTFN! =)

Migraines

So I've been having terrible headaches for a very long time. YesterdayI finally decided after having a headache for 24 hours straight that I would go to the doctor and get a diagnosis of what it was and get some medicine for it. I figured that I was having Migraines, but like I said I've never been diagnosed with them, so I wasn't 100% sure what it was.
I worked half a day yesterday and then went to the doctor. Sure enough I am having Migraines. He gave me a prescription for Imitrex which is a medicine that you take once you feel a Migraine coming on. I took one last night before I went to bed. Let me just say that this medicine did not agree with me. An hour after I took it my heart started POUNDING. It felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. I was nauseous and sweating. I just laid in the floor and felt like I was dying. I was scared to death. I finally tried to go to bed, but all I did was toss and turn. I coudln't sleep.
At 4:00 this morning my heart was still beating rapidly. I didn't sleep a wink ,and by 5:00 a.m. I was physically exhausted! I couldn't hardly walk to the bathroom. I called the doctor first thing this morning and told the nurse my symptoms. She had the doctor call me back and he said that it is a rare side effect from the Imitrex that he had prescribed. GREAT!!!
Now the good thing is that my headache did go away, but there is NO WAY that I am taking that medicine again if I'm going to feel like that every time. The doctor told me to try taking 1/4 of the pill next time and hopefully the side effects won't be nearly as strong. He said that the pill was probably too strong. You think?!?!?! =)
So I missed half a day of work yesterday and a whole day today. It just sucks! I just started to come down from the medicine about 4:00 this afternoon. What a night! At least I know that I'm ok, and it's only a side effect. Just beware if you have migraines. This medicine is some powerful stuff!

Fun at the park

On Saturday Bibi and I decided to take the girls to a park in Gastonia called Martha Rivers Park. It was unbelievable! We were amazed at how wonderful this park was put together. The entrance looked like a castle. It was absolutely amazing. The sandbox looked like a canyon. They had a water area and a music area. I would highly recomend checking it out. Here are some pictures from our day at the park.

Pictures of little Gracie who WILL NOT POSE =)

Why? Why? Why?.......

Ashlyn has a bad sinus infection with bronchitus. All that she does is cough and cough and cough. I just wish the I could make everything betther for her. I hate to see my baby sick!! The only thing that pissed me off was that the doctor didn't give her anything for the TERRIBLE cough, so I picked up some Robitussum while I was waiting on her antibiotics to be filled.

I finally got home with her medicine and I went ahead and gave her a dose of each. Well let me just warn you that Robitussum is supposed to make them drowsy (I made sure not to buy the non-drowsy formula). It had the opposite effect. She was running around the house like a crazy woman. I'd never seen that child have this much energy. It was very entertaining.

Another thing that she has started doing is asking "why" afer every sentence that I say. I didn't think that the "why" thing would start for another year or two. I guess I was wrong.

Always something...

Isn't life funny. When we were children we wanted to be so independent. We couldn't wait to grow up and be adults with our own home and family. And when we grow up and realize all of the stress that comes along with the "real world" we wish that we were just children again without a worry in the world.
I mean who knew all the stress that being a grown up would bring? There's always a bill to pay, something that's broken and needs to be fixed, a loved one who's sick. There's always something!
I have been praying alot lately for God to grant me some self-assurance. I have a tendency to worry and stress out over things. Well, this past week I have noticed a difference. We did still have things go wrong. Our dogs chewed our cable wire in two, our microwave (which we haven't even had a year) decided to stop working on us and the warranty ran out on June 28. It went kerplunk on July 5. Best Buy told us that since it was only a week since the warranty expired that they would fix it for free as if we had the warranty. Yippee!
I know that things like this happen everyday in everyone's life. I just want to be able to relax and not be so uptight. I want to be able to laugh when things go wrong and not get pissed and let that put me in a bad mood for the rest of the week. I mean how dumb is that to let a little microwave ruin my week? It's very dumb! And to think that I've been letting petty stuff like that interfere with my week.
So I am living life to the fullest. I am going to going to cherish the moments that mean the most and let the small things roll off my shoulder.

My Little Doodle Bug!!!!

4th of July Weekend

What a weekend! I started preparing Friday night. Britt, Ashlyn, and I all fell asleep around 9:00. We knew that we had a huge day ahead to look forward to. Ashlyn and I slept in until about 10:30. How I ever got blessed with a child that loves to sleeps this well is beyond me. She loves to sleep just like me just as much as me. =) We went over to Nana and Pappaw Drum's around lunchtime. Ashlyn was ready to go swimming. That's all she said all morning long. She even got her swim diaper and bathing suit herself and packed it in our bag. She's such a water baby.
My mom and dad kept her Saturday so that we could go out on Lake Norman with the wave runner. We had a blast. I didn't realize how much I had missed the lake until we actually got out riding around with our friends. The lake carries many great summer memories also. After we were tired of riding the wave runners we went back to Kellie's mom's house and took the pontoon boat out for a while. We went by and picked up Marty, his fiance Laura, Mitchell, and his wife Melissa. Then we parked in a cove and just swam around lauging about old times. We really need to start doing this more often! I had so much fun, and got to hang out with my cousins like the good ole days.
We used to always go over to their lake house during the summer and we would go from morning to night. Skiing, tubing, riding the boats and jet skis, fishing, swimming. Those are some of my missed memories. Hopefully Ashlyn will get to enjoy some of those activities in the future. I hope to give her all that I experienced plus some. But this will be very hard, as my parents spoiled me rotten, so Britt and I will be some big shoes to fill. =)
After the lake we went to Kellie and Matt's house to take a shower and get ready for Moriah and Jimmy's big 4th of July throw down. We didn't get over there until 10:00 or so. Great party girl! Y'all know how to do it! We had a great time. I saw alot of people there that I hadn't seen in a very long time. That was nice. After the party Britt and I headed home. We had drank during the day, so by midnight the alcohol had worn off and we were ready to get home to our bed.
We decided to sleep in. I had forgotten how much the lake wears you out. My body hurt in places that I didn't even know were there. I didn't realize just how out of shape I was. We got up around 10:30 and went to Cracker Barrell for breakfast. This is one of my favorite resturaunts! Britt bought me the cutest shirt there. It is pink with a John Deere Logo on it and it says "Country Mom". I can't wait to wear it. It is too darn cute!
After we got our bellies full we went over to my parent's house to pick up our little princess. She is so sweet! (tomorrow may be a different story ;) She got to go and see her favorite cousins Reid and Alaina. After she sees them that's all that she talks about for the next day or two. She thinks that she is just as big as they are and she can do ANYTHING that they do.
I cooked supper and then cut Britt's hair. lol. I think that I was more scared than he was. I was terrified that I would mess it up, and with it being short there is no other way to repair it other than to shave it. Well, I must say that I did a pretty darn good job. It's definitely short, but I think that I did good. He was happy with it, so that's all that matters. Now we can cut that out of our monthly budget. Hey, every little bit counts. =)
Can't wait til tomorrow. I just love the 4th. It is the peak of summer, and most importantly we get to celebrate how great it is to be an American. Kellie, call me if you go out on the boat. Ashlyn and I may come along for a little while if that's ok.

Not Quack, CRACK!!

Don't ask me why, but I've always thought that chriopractors were quacks. Let me tell you I have been VERY MISTAKEN! My neck has been bothering me for a while, so I decided to stop whining about it and do something about it. So I called the chiropractor that a couple of people had recommended to me, and OH MY GOSH!! Let me just tell you that he was wonderful.

I was very nervous when I first got there that he would break my neck or that I would get some sort of major neck injury. The first thing they did was take me back and talk to me about what problems I was having. Then they took me back for x-rays. After the x-rays they let me lay on this theraputic bed. I want one of these in my house!!! It looked like a regular doctor's bed at first with a blanket over it. Then the nurse rolled back the blanket, and wha-laa it was not a regular bed at all, but a DREAM BED. You lay on your back, and it is like a waterbed type contraption underneath you with jets that beat up and down your back. I'm telling you it was the best thing since sliced bread. Out of this world! =) It was so wonderful that I fell asleep on it. It only lasted for 10 minutes. When the nurse came back in I asked her if it was really necesary for me to get up. She laughed.

The doctor then came in and talked to me about my x-rays. Your neck is supposed to be curved in a c shape, well mine was curved the opposite way, and also my discs are starting to unalign. He told me that I am only in phase 1 though, so it was a good thing that I came and saw him now instead of waiting like alot of people do, then it is pretty much hopeless to get it back to normal.

He then laid me on my stomach and cracked my back, then flipped me over and took my head and cracked to the left and right. I didn't know that your body could make that sort of sound. Then he told me the best news ever. I have terrible TMJ, and I grind my teeth horribly EVERY night. I guess that I hold alot of my tension in my jaws. Well he tells me that he can align my jaws so that I will not have this problem anymore. I never heard of such a thing. He proceeds to put this device on both sides of my cheek along my jaw line, and POP it pushes your jaw back into place. Now I know that it will take a few trips back to completely help, but I swear that I feel like a new woman!! My neck and jaws are a little sore, but I cannot believe how much it helped!! Lord have mercy! I'm getting myself put back together slowly but surely. =)

Isn't it ironic?

I had to blog about something that happened last night that really made me sit back and realize how great I have it! How great my life is! How great my husband is! Let me start by saying that my husband can annoy me to no end, but he truly is a great man!!

A few years back I dated a baseball player. He was in the minor leagues at the time, but had just signed a contract to play with the Phillies. I will not mention his name, but if you've heard the sports news lately I'm sure that you've heard his name mentioned. He is a starting pitcher and every time that we turn on a Phillies game Britt has something to say about the guy. Now, I would never in a hundred years give up my relationship to Britt for him. But it made me think, how many women dream of being with a major sports star, or some famous actor or singer because they have so much money and they would live the life of luxury. Well ladies, you may want to rethink those dreams. Yeah, you may have millions of dollars, but money definitely does not buy happiness. This "baseball guy" was arrested last week for domestic violence. He punched his wife in her face out in public. Can you believe that? And to think that I dated this dirtbag.

Back a few years ago I thought about how great it would be to be married to someone rich and famous. No No No! I would not trade my husband for the world. All of these hollywood stars look so happy on the outside, but I would love to be a fly on the wall inside of some of their homes. We all have our problems, but nothing comes close to domestic violence. I LOVE YOU BRITT!! Thanks for putting up with my chaoctic life of cleaning, and not punching me. JUST KIDDING! =) Things like that just make you realize how great you really have it!

Girls Beach Retreat

I just wanted to post a few pictures from our weekend at the beach.

Girls I had the best time. Thanks for the great laughs and long talks. I had a wonderful time! Thanks for being such great friends. We will definitely have to make this a yearly trip! Love all of you!! =)

Look out Myrle Beach, Here we come!!

It's finally here. The day that I have been looking forward to all week long. Today after work we, being 4 great friends of mine and myself, head down to Myrtle. We have not been to the beach together since our senior year of high school. This weekend will be more memories to add into our "beach days book". My how many great laughs we have had down there. I am going to do my best to just relax and have NO worries.

Britt is working this weekend, so Ashlyn is going to be staying with my parents. I know that she is in good hands, but it's always hard to leave your child. I am going to miss her and Britt so much! But I do have to admit that I am looking forward to spending time with my girls. Margaritas in one hand and tanning lotion in the other! It's always nice to spend quality time with great friends. Sometimes you just need a weekend away to realize how lucky you are for such great friends to spend it with, and the family at home that you miss more than anything.

I just hope that I can come home to a clean house. Please, Please, Please!!!! I don't want to come home to clothes and shoes everywhere, dishes in the sink, papers all over the counter, and dirt all over the floor. I'm going to try not to worry about that until I pull into our driveway on Sunday, but Britt if you are reading this PLEASE help me out on this. You know that things like that drive me crazy!

Can't wait to see you girls. Moriah I hope that you have your camera ready to capture our "girls beach retreat"! See y'all soon! =)

Ashlyn's Two Year Birthday Party!

Blog Question

Posting Blog Questions from Moriah's Blog.

Pick one. Blog about it. Tag.
1. What's your favorite memory as a child?
2. What's your favorite summer memory?
3. What's your favorite smell?
4.What's your favorite ritual?
5. What's your favorite noise?

I have to go with #2 also. My favorite summer memory would have to be going to our beach house every summer. The one summer that stands out in my mind is the time that Ida, Kellie, and me went down. I think that it was the summer after our Sophomore year. We had gone down with my parents for a week. I remember that we all had the biggest crush on one of the lifeguards at the pool. We would go there everyday instead of the beach to lay out because we wanted to see him. Our house is in Ocean Lakes, and the thing to do for teens is to cruise the main strip of Ocean Lakes. I know that it sounds really cheesy, but Mom and Dad wouldn't let us leave the campgrounds, so many kids did this. It was like a much smaller version of the Myrtle Beach strip, and instead of driving cars, most people cruise on golfcarts (there were cars also though). =) That sounds so funny now. Anyways, we were cruising in my cavalier convertible (which looking back was not that great of a car, but I loved it. Probably because it was a convertible). We hear some guys yelling at us, so we pull the car over on the side of the road to talk to these guys. Well all of a sudden my car jerks and comes to a very sudden stop. We hear the guys yelling something about a man. Well Ida thinks that they said that I have ran over a man. All three of us are totally embarrassed and wondering what in the heck happened. Kellie and Ida were trying to hide in the floorboard of my car. The guys are laughing hysterically at us, so I know that I have not run over anyone. Finally I hear one of them yell "you're stuck on top of a man-hole". Don't ask me how we did it, but we were stuck on top of this manhole that stuck up about half a foot or more out of the ground. My car would not go anywhere. We were literally stuck ontop of the thing. My wheels would turn, but since they didn't reach the ground we couldn't go anywhere. The guys finally came over and literally had to pick up the back end of my car and push me off. We were mortified.

On the same trip after numerous trips to the pool to drool over our crush, we actually end up meeting him. He had some friends in town for the week as well and had asked if we wanted to come over to their house and hang out for the night. It was our last night there. I think it was a Saturday night, so we talked my parents into letting us stay out (in Ocean Lakes only) until 12:00. We went over to there house and hung out for a while. We played some cards and watched some tv. Now at the time none of us drank, but the guys had been drinking pretty heavily from the looks of the place. We all decide to take a ride down to the beach. Once down there we start playing spin the bottle. We were having a great time, but it was getting late. Kellie, who is the responsible one kept saying that we needed to head back to our house, Ida on the other hand said that she thought that it would be ok if we stayed out. My parents were asleep, so they wouldn't know what time we would come in. I was stuck in the middle. I knew that we should go home, but yet we were having a great time. We ended up staying on the beach until 2 am. We all headed back to they lifeguards house, then got in our car and headed home (well my beach home). All of a sudden while driving to our house I see this car fly up behind me and start flashing their lights on and off. Ida proceeds to tell me to "just keep driving". I however recognized the headlights of my parents car. They were SOOOO worried about us. My mom had gone to Chris, the lifeguards mom's house, woke her up. So here we are my parents, his parents, Ocean lakes security all standing outside of this beach house. Everything was taken care of there, but once we got back to our house my mom and dad let us have it. My poor mom was worried sick about us. Now having my own child I completely understand how stupid that was on our part. Kellie is sick to her stomach because of what happened, and it wasn't even her fault. She was stuck with me and Ida the poor decision makers. I felt bad also. Ida on the other hand felt bad, but this are her exact words to my parents, "I'm really sorry, but we really did have a GREAT TIME!". That's so Ida. She is too funny. Now that we look back on it we laugh about it, but at the time, my parents were so disappointed in all of us.
There are so many beach stories that I could write about, but this one sticks out more than any others. It was a great trip and I will never forget these memories. I swear that I could write a book on our beach adventures and it would probably make millions. Maybe next weekend will be one to add into the book. =)

Slide Show

Megs, I copied you. I can't believe that I created a slideshow. Dad, I know that you are proud of me. =) I didn't think that I would be able to do it, but it wasn't hard at all. I just wanted to share some of our pics with everyone. Hope you enjoy.

I created a Slide Show! Check it out!

Can you say PISSED?!?!?!?!

I am so angry right now. For all of you that know me know that I am pretty laid back, and it takes alot to make me REALLY ANGRY. Well, I'm there right now. We had a house fire in December of 2004. We finally had our house complete and ready to move back into August of last year. We used ServPro for all of the fire clean up. They were in charge of cleaning all of our goods that were salvagable, and most important refinishing all of our wooden furniture. First of all let me say that ServPro was a great company to work with. ServPro has a company that they use to do refinishing, Furniture Medics. First of all this company refinished our dining room furniture in the wrong color, and the wrong finish. So this slowed down our process of moving back in. Finally all of our furniture was back to it's previous condition and at last we were ready to move back in. During the moving process Furniture Medics broke one of the glass panels in our china hutch. Remember, this was in August of last year. We are still missing 2 panels of glass out of our china cabinet. They took one of the panels out so that they would have something to match. So it has been 10 months now and our china hutch is missing one whole side of glass. I am furious!!!! Britt has called them numerous times and we keep getting the same story - We are trying to find someone who specializes in this glass, We have sent the sample of to AZ, NY, etc and we cannot find anyone who can make this glass. I am tired of hearing their excuses. You broke the glass, now fix it. The glass is probably hard to match, because it has a blown look to it, but surely someone could special make a panel if it came down to it. I finally called yesterday and left a nasty message. They never returned my call, so this morning I called and left an even nastier message. I told them that if I did not receive a phone call today that we would be taking legal matters. I mean come on now, it has been 10 months. There is NO REASON for it to take that long, and if they can't find anyone to make the dern glass, then have someone remake all 4 glass panels. I am tired of our dining room looking like it's half way put together because our china hutch looks cheap. It is an Ethan Allen, and it is not cheap. It was a hand me down from Britt's family. I am just really tired of this company ignoring our phone calls and telling us lies. JUST FIX THE PROBLEM!!!!!!! OK, I feel better now. I just needed to get that out.

ANOTHER WEEKEND COME AND GONE

It seems like during the summertime the weekends just fly by. Friday night we had a baby shower for April, a friend of mine. She is having a little baby boy. We had a great time. She received all kinds of adorable baby gifts. Ahhh the memories.

Saturday we had a yard sale at our house. It started off a little slow, but by lunchtime we had made a little over $100, so I was pretty happy about that. $100 just off of clothes and a few knick knacks. I thought that we did pretty well, and not only did we make money, but we got rid of a bunch of boxes full of junk that have been taking up one whole side of our basement. After the yard sale I was exhausted. I had gotten up at 5:15 to set everything up and then packed everything back up in the 90-some degree heat. That was terrible!!!! Then Ashlyn and I went in to take a nap. She was worn out too. She had played with Sadie and Karly, 2 little girls who are 5 and 4. If I need someone to come over and help me occupy Ashlyn these are definitely the girls to call. They are great little helpers!

Then it was time to head down to Charlotte for the Faith Hill and Tim McGraw concert with Kellie and Moriah. The concert was AWESOME! They are such a cute little couple. And Tim, wheeewww! Lookin mighty fine! =) We had a great time. It was nice to have a night with the girls.

Today Britt's mom had called and her car wouldn't crank. She was stuck at IHop. She finally got it started and headed over to our house for Britt to take a look at it. She had our niece and nephew, Alaina and Reid, with her. They all came over and played and played. Ashlyn had stayed with my parents last night since I didn't get in from the concert until late. After church that brought her over. She LOVES Alaina and Reid!!!!!! It's so cute watching her play with them. She thinks that she can do everything that they do. They got ready to leave and Alaina wanted Ashlyn to go to Nana Joyce's with them. I gave Joyce a look like, are you sure that you want ALL THREE of them to go home with you? She said that she would love that, so I packed 3 carseats in the back of my car (she is driving it until we figure out what is wrong with hers), and off they went. I'm sure that Ashlyn and Joyce will sleep GREAT tonight! Now I'm getting ready to head to a wedding shower for Seth Rutlege and Allison, his fiance. Then maybe I can come home and get a little relaxation. I doubt it though. It just seems like every weekend from this weekend throughout the summer is jam packed full. I guess that's why the summer flys by so fast!

A FEW MORE PICS FROM ATLANTA

PICS FROM THE GAME

Atlanta Braves

What a great weekend! I bought Britt tickets to see the Braves for his birthday. He watches the games religiously, and has never been to a MLB game, so I thought that it would be a great birthday surprise.

We headed to Atlanta yesterday about 10:30 after dropping off Ashlyn with Nana Joyce, and Rudy(the dog) off with a co-worker of Britt. Then we hit the road. Interstate 85 all the way. We were both so excited to get out and do something besides working in the yard at home for one weekend. =)

We got to Atlanta in no time. It only took about 3 1/2 hours. I was very surprised at that. The hard part was finding our hotel. It tooks us ONE HOUR, yes one hour to drive around every street in Atlanta to find our hotel. We finally found it with the help of a police officer.

We get checked into our room which was smoking, and not that I really mind, but Britt and I don't smoke so we really didn't want a smokey smelling room, but hey, you get what you get. That was the only bad thing about the hotel. I did bring my own pillows and my feather comforter, because you would have to pay me a million dollars to sleep under those nasty comforters. I mean how often do you really think that they wash them? YUCK!

Finally we are off to the game. It started at 7:05 Saturday evening so we had a little time to kill. We entered the stadium and walked around the whole dern thing. It was interesting though. They had all kinds of things for you to take pictures of and read about. It was alsmost like a Braves museum.

It was finally time for the game to start so we got some food, which by the way cost $20 for 2 orders of chicken tenders and 1 drink. Beware you will get robbed there, by the vendors. A beer is $6.75. Can you believe that? I mean you can buy a whole 6 pack for that. It's ridiculous!!! The food was OK. It should have been the best chicken that I've ever tasted for that price. =) We then got our drinks. Britt got beer, and since I don't care much for beer I wanted chardonay, but they were out. They only had white zinfindel, so what the hell, at least it's wine. We finally have everything that we needed and headed to our seats.

Our seats were good. We were right down at the field. We could see everything great. I finally got tired of drinking the white zinfindel, so I switched to beer. Can you believe that? Mindy drinking beer. It was a heck of alot better than that dern wine though. It was way too sweet. I can't believe that that is the only kind of wine that I used to drink. YUCK! Ok, back to the game. It was so much fun. The Braves were getting killed in the first half, but then they came back and got 7 runs in one inning. But unfortunaley that wasn't enough. The Braves ended up losing.
=( All in all it was a great day though. We had a blast.

We had so much fun that we bought tickets to todays game at 1:05. We just bought 2 $5 tickets and had seats in the nose bleed section, but the view actually was pretty good. We then went to walk around some more and one of the ushers had left his area so I waved to Britt to hurry up and we went down in the lower section and set there the entire game. So we learned a very valuable lesson. Just by the cheapest tickets, which are only $1, and then wait until everyone gets seated and you can sit in the ground seats. It was GREAT!!!!!!

We are home now, and I'm getting ready to hit the sack, but I wanted to let everyone know how great our weekend was even though the Braves lost both games. BOOOOOOO!!!!!! Maybe we're just bad luck. =) We're definitely wanting to go to more games this year, so if anyone is interested let us know. They really are alot of fun.

I will be posting some pictures shortly.

Our front yard

My wonderful husband has been off all week long and boy has he made our front yard look amazing. I can't believe how just putting a little bit of muclch out will make it look so much neater around your flower beds. It makes everything look so much nicer. Well, I had to post some pictures of our new front yard. They aren't that great because they were taken at night, but at least you'll get an idea. Hope you like it. Oh and yeah, Britt does this for a side job if anyone is interested. =)

Piggy Tails

Weird Dream

So last night I slept great, which is unusual for me. Normally I can't go to sleep because my mind is going crazy worrying about something all the time, and then when I finally do go to sleep it is not a deep sleep. It seems as if I toss and turn all night long. Well, last night I slept like a baby (I really don't know why people use this expression ,because as Ashley and Moriah know, young babies do not sleep ALL NIGHT LONG). Anyways I slept great and man did I have some weird dreams. One of which involves you girls from high school. I dreamed that we were in Europe traveling all over together. We stopped by to see Martijn. I guess I dreamed about him since I saw that he was on MySpace the other day. Too weird. Who would have ever thought that we would see or hear from him again? Kellie - remember when he spent Thanksgiving at my house? Poor thing! My family absolutely adored him, but they weren't around him everyday like we were to hear him talking NON-STOP. I feel kind of bad now for ousting him the way we did. He was just trying to fit in in a TOTALLY different country. Ok, off my soap box about him. We were all on top of the Eiffel Tower (like we really did in Paris) singing "Friends are Friends Forever". Who knows where this came from, or why I dreamed it, but I did and it was a really neat dream. Can you imaginie it? All of us traveling around Europe together?????? Yeah, it was definitely a dream, but a really intersting one. Where do dreams come from and what do they truly mean? I've studied it a small bit, but I would really be interested in learning more about where these odd mind creations come from.

Well girls with that said I think that it is time for another girl's night, and Meg's you have to come along this time. You girls truly are the BEST! God has blessed me with some AWESOME friends!

LOSS

A co-worker of mine was expecting a baby around the same day that Ashlyn was born. We were having a shower for the baby here at work on Wednesday afternoon. Well, the baby boy decided to come early. He got a phone call around 2:00 and his wife's water had broken. So the shower was put on hold. He was so excited, and so was everyone else. We couldn't wait to see this beautiful little baby. We never heard any news yesterday. I thought that something may have gone wrong, but then again I know after you have had a baby you just want to love and hold it. You kind of put everything else on hold.

Well, our boss came to us this morning and said that he had received a voicemail from Sidong (my co-worker) and the baby was born and alive for 10 minutes and then they lost their precious son. My heart aches for this couple. Please keep them in your prayers. I cannot even begin to imagine what they are going through. I know that everything happens for a reason, and I don't like to question God, but what reason do you take the life of a newborn baby? I just have a REALLY hard time understanding why this sort of thing happens. I know that God has a plan for all of us, and this was the life that was planned for this tiny baby, but why?

It's hard to deal with the loss of anyone, but I believe that the loss of a child is the worst loss ever! I just pray for God to help them heal in this terrible time.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

I was letting Rudy out to use the bathroom and this is the first sight that I saw as I opened the door. I had to capture this beautiful picture.

Mommy and Me

Any Motherly Advise?!?!?!?

OK, so Ashlyn had been doing better with the temper tantrums, but the past week has been H E double hockey sticks! Oh my goodness! I know that her pictures look adorable, but don't let that little face fool you! My does she have a temper on her. And stubborn as they come. When she starts these temper tantrums there is nothing that anyone can do to stop them. She screams as loud as possible, kicks, hits, cries; You name it, she does it! And it goes on for about 30 minutes until she wears herself out. It's awful! What do I do to stop these terrible fits? It's really kind of comical. She almost looks like the girl off of the excorcist, not really, but that's how she acts. I told Britt that when her head starts spinning I'm really going to be worried. =) Well, hopefully it's just her age! Let me tell you the whole terrible two thing is definitely true for me!

Extreme Home Makeover

I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!!! It was GREAT tonight. They were helping a family who had given everything that they had to try to make the little boys life as great as it possibly could be. The hospital had found a brain tumor when the little boy was 4 years old. Could you imagine getting that kind of news. It makes my stomach turn just thinking about it. The little boy had a lot of courage, but now enought to fight off this terrible disease. There was a quote at the end of the show that went something like this, he may be gone, but you have to keep living on through all of the memories that you have of your loved one. I cried and cried and cried!!! That show is great. It always leaves me wondering what I can do for others in our community to help make their life a little better. I always learn alot from this show, but tonight I learned a great deal about life. It just shows that even if you have a huge loss, you have to keep giving life your all and living on through the great times and memories.

I don't know why, and I guess it's pretty normal, but I have a really hard time trying to ignore the little silly "what if" thoughts. I think them every day. Sometime more than others. What if something would happen to Ashlyn?, What if something would happen to my husband, my parents, my family, my friends, etc.... I also worry about something happening to me and it just kills me to think that I may miss out on my daughter's life. Am I crazy for doing this? I know that we are supposed to live everyday as it is our last. I think that I am a worrier just like my mammaw Drum. She would worry over anything and everything. I just honestly do not know if I could handle losing a child. I think that I would literally go crazy. Life is so scary! You take what you are given and make the best of it. It's not that I'm scared of death itself. I'm scared of losing that great time with our loved ones, and just knowing that you aren't going to have any more time like that to spend with them.

You always hear everyone say that they LOVE LIFE, but you never hear anyone say that they LOVE DEATH. With death you just try to make the best out of it that's possible. Just keep living on those wonderful memories!

Ashlyn and the potty

I am so excited. We haven't even really started working with Ashlyn on potty training yet, but today after we got home from church she said that she needed to poopie. Britt took her to the potty and she poopied in the potty. Can you believe it? I am just so happy. I'm still in shock. She was so proud of herself. I just had to share our "big girl" moment. This is great news!

Before we know it she will be all grown up. I just wish we could freeze time. This age is the BEST! She is however starting the terrible two thing, but other than the temper tantrums, which by the way have gotten better (Thank You Lord!) Ashlyn is the biggest joy ever. She learns new things everyday and you really can't get mad at her when she is just learning about her own independence and how far she can push your limits. And I think that she has learned that Britt and I will not give in no matter what. I took one VERY LONG weekend, but ever since then she has been pretty good. All we have to say is "do you want a spanking?" and she'll dry those tears right up. It's just so funny that they are so young, yet so smart!

My "trouble" babies

They are definitely TROUBLE, but you just can't help but love them. I mean how can you not love those precious faces. You can see them smiling from ear to ear. These are the dogs who chewed up the trailor wires on Britt's trailor not once but twice, found some exta insulation in the shed behind our house and desroyed it ALL OVER our yard, jumped in my car when it was storming and wouldn't get out, and dug up and shredded our brand new Japanese Maple that we just planted on Monday. The list goes on and on. I honestly can't believe that Britt hasn't shot one of them by now. They are alot betther than they used to be, so that tells you how much trouble they got into when they were puppies. I am so glad that they are finally getting out of that puppy stage. I swear I think that they are worse than a child. They are a mess, but I wouldn't trade them for anything!

DRESS UP TIME!

Where do the years go?

I can't believe that it's already May. Every year seems to fly by faster and faster. Is it just a part of getting older? I remember when I was a child the day would creep by. I was always hoping that tomorrow would get here as fast as it could. Now I try to savor each day. Enjoy every moment. It just goes way too fast. I just can't believe that my baby isn't a baby anymore. She will be 2 years old next month.

She is becoming such an independent little girl. SO SMART! She can already count to 10. She is beginning to potty train herself. The list goes on and on. We are so fortunate to have such a beautiful and smart little girl. Definitely prissy. She is ALL GIRL! She has a fit whenever I put my hair up now. I put my hair up every evening because by the end of the day it is driving me insane. Well everytime I put it up now she says, "No mommy. Hair down." She will repeat herself over and over until I take it down. I have no clue why it bothers her so bad. Oh well. It's cute for now, but she will have to get use to mommy's hair being up every now and then. I can't stand it in my face all of the time. I don't know what she would do if I got it all cut off. She would probably have a fit.

Tonight she did the silliest thing. I heard her saying, "NO NO NO RUDY". I went to see what she was scolding him about, and he had pooped in the corner (but he really is housetrained lol). She knows that mommy and daddy discipline Ashlyn, so she has to discipline somebody, and it just happens to be poor Rudy. It's so cute though. She's already becoming like her mommy.

Well enough rambling about my little princess. I just can't believe how much she learns everyday. I wanted to share a little of it with everyone else.

MY KIDS