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.