This is the tale of a 2 year old, a 1 year old, a 9 month old, and a Monday!

Whew! Thank goodness it is Tuesday!!! Did not know if I would make it here yesterday. Work was insane and didn't get any breaks from 8-5, so by the time that I got in the car to go home I was exhausted and starving!!!

It was Carleigh's graduation from Kindergarten. And yes, I will take a moment to ponder on this because Carleigh is now a 1st grader and this statement is so painful! She's so growny and prissy now. Not that she hasn't always been growny and prissy, but now she really doesn't look like my little Carleigh anymore. Of course she's super smart, sweet (when she wants to be), and really fashionable.. so what more could a girl possibly need to be? :) It's hard to think about her being this old already since she was just a few months old when me and James got married she has definitely been our baby! So as reminiscing goes, of course I had to put a picture of our "Little Carleigh!" This picture was in the fall after Jameson was born, which takes me to another sad point that Jameson will be the same age that Carleigh was when he was born this year... ugh... tear! But anywho... Congrats to Carleigh for finishing Kindergarten and moving on in her educational career!

But since little Elijah does not do well in small confined spaces (LOL!) I opted out of the celebration to let Leli (as said by Jameson) to come play with us so LeAnne and Shannon could actually see, hear, and enjoy watching Carleigh graduate. So after a rough Monday at work I went home and had three little boys! It was a lot of fun though! And since I had Jameson and was just a few months away from having Joey when Eli was born I haven't got to spend a lot of time with him, so I've really enjoyed the Eli time that I've gotten lately. He's the sweetest baby ever, really happy, and he is sooo good! It's amazing to me that you tell a kid not to do something and they actually quit doing it. I tell Joey no no and he just looks at me, grins, and keeps on doing it! Jameson and Eli play great together and poor little Joey was just trying to keep up with them because he thought he was as big as them! There were lots of diapers, macaroni, and saying "no no" before the night was over to say the least! But it was a blast! Of course my exhaustion this morning is really sinking in and confirming my contentment in my decision to not have a third child! LOL!

Old Enough To Know Better, Still Too Young To Care!

Hello all! I realize it has been a few days since I blogged, and my fall off the blog wagon has not been intentional! It has been a little crazier than normal! Things have been insane at work, which is always a good thing because busy means making money and days not dragging by slowly, so who can complain about that? At home things are starting to calm down a bit. I know it will be a short lived thing, but I am enjoying it none the less!

Thursday was my 25th birthday! Yes.. 25.. half-way to 50, almost thirty, no longer in my early 20's, blah blah blah.. I've heard it all so no need to rub it in further! :) But it actually was not that bad. Honestly, it's probably the best birthday I have had in years. For the first time in our married life my husband not only remembered my birthday, but actually purchased me a gift! I was so excited. I got a beautiful strand of turquoisey blue pearls and the bracelet to match, and I actually got a card!!! Which is sad that it excited me more than anything else! LOL! But after 5 birthdays, 3 Mother's Days and even some anniversary's of no presents and not even a card, it was an exciting thing! I also had so many friends do so many special things for me I was really overwhelmed and then my adorable little niece, Heidi, and the best sister in law ever, Heather, came and surprised me on my birthday at work and brought me a little yummy prize and an "Awesome Aunt" card and sticker that I wore proudly!

Friday night James took me out to eat for my birthday at Outback. Of course it was super yummy and I stuffed myself on blooming onion! Then we headed to the mall which I hadn't been to a mall in at least a couple years and I discovered a "new to me" store since I've been told I've been living under a rock (thank you Jennifer Baker!!! LOL!), but Charming Charlies is my new favorite store EVA!!! We got home about 10, which is so late for me and I was wore out! Saturday I got up early and was going to mow the yard before it got too hot and while the boys and James were still in bed. Of course I got the front yard almost completely done and I ran out of gas! So, James went to get some more gas in the lawnmower. It took him forever since he got him something to eat, dip, gas in the vehicles too and just basically took him precious time and I ended up finishing mowing the yard in the heat of the day. It wasn't too horrible and I got some fabulous sun, so it all worked out good.

My Uncle Bob had come up from Fairhope on Thursday and had been staying with Mom and Dad. We got to hang out with him Thursday night and also Saturday evening, and a lot of the rest of the family were up too. It was a fun night to hang out since it had been well over a year since I had seen him. He left to go back home to the beach on Sunday and who could blame him! I was tempted to back up and head back to his guest cottage for a few weeks! But that pretty much sums it up and it's long and boring, but I hope everyone else had a great weekend and is enjoying their Manic Monday's!

Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally!

Okay, so late yesterday evening we finally got our cable, internet and phone back!!! After almost three weeks without even watching the news, I was about to loose my mind! (not that it would take much for me.. but still!!!) Me and Jameson had watched Tangled (thank you Carleigh for letting me steal), Robin Hood, and Harry Potter until I could take no more! So thank you Charter crew and all the out of towners that helped with the process of getting us some sanity back in our homes. Of course I had too much going on last night to watch anything, but I am looking forward to catching up on some Office and Grey's Anatomy tonight! I have never been so excited to get to watch shows like Yo Gabba Gabba and even those Backyardigans, well... ever!!! And I'm very sorry Jameson, but I do believe that Robin Hood is going to have to go into "hiding" for a little while! So the snivellin', grovellin', measly, weasely, blabberin', jabberin', gibberin', jabberin', blunderin', plunderin', wheelin', dealin', Prince John, that phony king of England is going to finally get some rest!

Monday Already!

Well we had a pretty eventful, yet enjoyable weekend. It will be boring to everyone else, but I got to see a lot of friends and family I haven't got to be with in a long time. Friday since Shannon had been transferred to Huntsville Hospital, and still wasn't going to get to come home, I got to keep Eli. We had a blast! I had never got to keep him before and was really worried because I'm not around him any except at church and didn't know if he would really stay with me! It was so much fun though. Him, Jameson and Joey played with every toy they have and ran around laughing all day except for the couple hours where Eli and Joey actually took naps at the same time! (Yes. two hour naps for the 14 month old and the 9 month old at the same time... I still can't believe it either!) It was fabulous! When his Marmie got off he got to go spend the evening with her and me and the boys got ready and when James got home from work we went to go see little Baby Jolie. She is a Forshee baby if I've ever seen one. Beautiful with dark skin and a ton of black hair and super tiny! Joey wasn't interested in her at all, but was very interested in her baby swing and the Pooh bear toy in her play pen! Jameson on the other hand decided that he would name her Pocahontas! Which might actually be a good thing since Joey and Jolie are pronounced the same in "Jameson Talk".

Saturday morning my cousin, Christopher, called and said he was on his way to bring us breakfast and visit. I was so excited. I haven't seen him in 3 1/2 years, and he's never seen my children. It was so good to see him. His job in Florida sent him to Birmingham working after the storms and he's been working nonstop for weeks now, but they finished at their location there and were moving to Jasper, Alabama, so he got the day off. We hung out for a few hours and he played with the boys who loved him since he was up for wrestling. After he left my marathon of errands started and ended with having the house cleaned, barely making it to church on time and some yummy nacho meat in the crock pot smelling up the kitchen! Bro. Arthur McAllister was there and he did wonderful (which is needless to say, right?). Some of our old friends were there and we got to eat with them after church. It was so nice to see Brian & Amanda and their kiddos and Darrin and Tasha and their girls! We never get to do anything with them, so I really enjoyed it. Sunday we don't have church due to decoration, but it was a nice lazy day for me. We just hung out and I got some sewing done. Nicole and Adam came by for a little while and Jameson and Ava played. I gave her some Little Debbie cakes and Candy and sent her home hyped up on sugar! (You're welcome Nicole!)

So here we are on Monday morning and I'm not awake fully so all of this may not make sense, but I'm already counting hours down til my next weekend and I hope all of you have a great week! And I took a lot of pics of the boys on Friday while we were home so they are just randomly scattered throughout the blog! Sorry for the randomness, but I thought they were too cute to not share!

NO MORE PENCILS, NO MORE BOOKS, NO MORE TEACHER'S DIRTY LOOKS!

Well, all the essay's have been submitted, assignments have been completed, exams are all done, and all I can say is Hallelujah!!! I'm sooooo ready for a break. With everything else that has been going on with us lately to get one thing off of our checklist is fabulous to me! Now starts the marathon of birthdays, spring/ summer activities, and revivals! Just thinking about it is making my head spin, but this 80 degree day is putting me very much in the mood for a nice dip in the cement pond! :) Hope all my blogger friends have a wonderful week!

Day Thirty!

Day thirty is a picture of someone you miss! I don't have a bunch of pictures of all the people I miss. I miss my brother, my Granny Grunt, my Pawpaw Sealey, my Aunt Connie, Sis. Vera Case, Bro. David Jones, Bro. Carl Rice, Sis. Joyce and Sis. Mae Troglen, I can't even begin to think of all the people I miss through life, but also so many friends that I used to be around a lot that are still here I miss bunches too! So, here's a shout out to any of you that I haven't seen in a while.. I miss you!

Watermelons, Wagons, and Tupperware!

Well, this is a non-tornado, non-tragedy all around and just a general happy post.. because I need some happiness! LOL! We have had quite a few eventful days, and they have been spent with a lot of playing outside and reading, although most of the days are that way for us anyways with Jameson. Susan came one day to take a hot shower and hauled the kids around in the wagon. I took a picture of them when Elijah, Carleigh and Jameson were all piled up in there together! Of course all pics were took with my phone, so their a little fuzzy! I've read "If your happy and you know it" so many times, that even our neighbors that were hanging out all know the book by heart also! Jameson also had his first watermelon, and he is a big fan! And yesterday while sitting outside with some friends and playing with Joey, he busted out laughing and I seen that he has two new teeth in the top! I was so excited! We are now up to six teeth. The boys are also loving it at Granna's and Joey has been exploring all over! I caught him in the kitchen drawers last night and dumping Tupperware all over the kitchen floor! Of course Granna's response was... oh, he can't hurt nothing in there! If I had done that as a child, I'm thinking that would have not been the repercussion! But I guess that's why they are "grand" children!

Day 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29!

Because the least important thing going on in my life right now is the 30 day photo challenge, but I wanted to get caught up if nothing else just to get my mind off of everything else! So here we go!

Day 23: A picture of your favorite book. This is actually a picture for the latest movie, but Pride and Prejudice is my all time favorite. It's a true classic and I just love Mr. Darcy!

Day 24: A picture of something you wish you could change. Since I'm a big believer in not looking back and accepting that what you've went through got you to here there's not really anything I would change... Except for the reading on the scales these days! LOL!
Day 25: A picture of my day! This was Friday, and my day was spent at the laundromat! We were behind anyways, so clean towels and sheets were a must! So thankful we still had a bed to put the clean sheets on!

Day 26: A picture of something that means a lot to me. Well that would be my little family! Me and my three boys! :) They mean the world to me!

Day 27: A picture of you and a family member. Well, this is me and 3 family members! Me, my cutie patootie niece, Heidi Harkins, my fabulous sister-in-law, Heather Harkins, and my adorable little boy, Jameson Harkins.

Day 28: Something you are afraid of... Well I've always been scared, but now I am terrified! Especially having been in three now, and seen another two that were at a safe distance, but that's enough for me for sure!!!

Day 29: A picture that can always make you smile! This definitely does. When my boss, P.J. and his whole family came down with the Swine flu, but he insisted on coming in to work to review some stuff, we made him a little "Sick Room". We quarantined it, and put on our masks courtesy of Dr. Boggus! My other boss, Randy, thought it was so hilarious, he had to take a picture of all of us! It was one of those really fun days down at the B&B! :)

Toto, I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore!

Well one week, total devastation, and havoc later... It's time to Blog! Of course everyone knows about the horrible storms that come through last Wednesday morning. It started at 5 a.m. in Guntersville that morning with the first of the tornadoes to come through. I, one terrified of storms girl since I had already been through two tornadoes, was up watching Brad Travis and that radar. James was getting ready to leave for work and things were calm in our neck of the woods. Cullman was getting hit hard with a bad storm and confirmed tornado on the ground. James left for work and I continued to watch the damage. It started getting a little rainy outside a little after 6 and they said that storm cell was moving towards Guntersville. I was getting anxious and a little worried so I had everything ready to take cover when the power went out. I scrambled to my phone going to call James to see if he could tell me what was going on. There was no service. I couldn't dial out, I tried to text my friend from work, Allison, and my text's wouldn't go through. So, I pulled up my facebook. Hoping something had been posted by somebody before I lost service, and my facebook was working!!! It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. I got a message from Gina McBride ( I will love you forever girl!!!), and she told me there was a tornado on the ground in Guntersville, and they said to take cover. I got the boys, woke Mom up (who yes...was sleeping through the whole thing!!!) and went took cover. We heard it coming and the house was shaking, but it passed really quickly, and we seemed to be in good shape. Of course after it had passed, I went looking outside to make sure things were okay, and there were several trees down in the driveway and the rocking chairs had been blown off the front porch, and appeared that one of them was broken, some siding was hanging down, but the back porch everything was in tact didn't even look blown out of place and everything looked good.

I looked over at Darlene's and her and her girls were out on the front porch. Talked to them and made sure they were okay, and other than some siding off of their house, Jeff's canoe somewhere in the woods, and being completely terrified... they were all okay. The phones started buzzing! Apparently pretty much every house around us had damage, Chad's car had been crushed by his huge Pecan Tree in his front yard and had barely missed the house, getting part of the porch on the way down, the Long's had got hit hard, their farm was a mess, they were missing deer, and their houses had been damaged. We didn't really know how bad it was. We couldn't get out and it just seemed like a mess. Then the phones started messing up again, but we were able to get in touch with James and Dad and they were on their way home, no one had power, and things were a mess. There was another round of storms headed for us that afternoon, and they were trying to get people home before then. We made it good. It was a little chilly, but sunny and pretty outside, the boys were playing and we're not sissy girls, so we could handle no power. LeAnne didn't have damage other than some shingles and patio furniture blown around so she was going to go get some food and some stuff from Wal-mart. She called to see if we needed anything and I was low on formula, so I told her to pick me up some. Well, she started down Pleasant Grove Road and seen that going anywhere was not going to happen!

We thought it was all so devastating... but it was apparently just the beginning. So as the day rocked on thanks to Will Harkins ( I will love you forever too!!!) who was in Mobile tracking everything for us and calling to warn us we were able to get some heads up before the storms were getting close. We kept getting calls of damages, my dear friend Kayla lost her home but so thankfully her and little Casen were okay, numerous more friends lost their homes, and then getting calls of lost lives. That's when it really become devastating. The days rocked on, we found out more people who had been killed and were just being found, and I hate to say I think is still the case, seen some wonderful generosity by everyone around, and am so thankful for wonderful friends like Kristina Whitehead who walked from her house to the Higdon Cemetery at night to let me know that my brother's rock and headstone weren't damaged by the fallen trees just because she didn't want me to worry about it! That meant SOOOO much! You will never know!

And although we're grieving over all of the lives lost.. I just want to say a little something about Wonderful, Hilarious & Crazy Mott! (a.k.a. Sis. Martha Michaels). This is truly a great loss to us. As tragic as it is loosing her and Bro. Buddy, I know the Lord knew that she wouldn't want him to go without her. But I was thinking of some funny times with her and just how much fun she was. I remember one time, riding up Gunter's Mountain and being a kid and always getting car sick, I started to get sick, and Pam couldn't pull over, she was panicking (imagine that...) and Mott just threw her purse in my lap right before I got sick all in it! I was so upset that she had done that, and she said.. "Aww... I needed a new one anyways, and there wasn't nothing good in it no way!" So, she will always be the only woman I know that was willing to let someone throw up in her purse without blinking an eye! I love you and I will miss you bunches!

I'm so thankful for so many things... One, I'm so thankful that it was not worse than it was in our area and that me and my family were safe and still have a home! Two, I'm so thankful for friends who think of you and warn you to take cover, keep you updated when they know you have no way to know what's headed your way, and go out of their way to ease your mind about something that is so unimportant in the scheme of things going on around. Three, I'm so thankful to have power back now! I know they thought we wouldn't before Friday, so to get it back this early, I am truly thankful to everyone all over the State that is working like crazy to help get things back as quickly as possible. Four, I'm so thankful for all of our great neighbors and friends who made it an easier time. Jeff & Darlene Rice.. for sharing your generator running freezer with us so all the meat I had just purchased two days before wouldn't ruin!!!! Rachael & Emily Rice & Chelsea and Hannah Long for hanging out, making us laugh, and entertaining my boys!!! Travis and Jacklyn Hopkins for all the help lately with everything and the wonderful conversations and laughs (although most as Travis' expense...) and for just being true friends. Mark & Trish Long for cooking all the food in your freezer and inviting us over to pig out!!! It has definitely been an experience that we won't forget. Driving around today and seeing the damage is depressing, but behind every cloud, there is a silver lining. Our silver lining is getting two new baby girls in the midst of these storms.. a baby Jolie who came last Friday, and a baby Hadlee who came yesterday! Although I haven't got to see either other than pictures, I can't wait to get my arms around and squeeze these precious little babies! And for all the rest of the madness, in the fabulous words of Ms. Scarlett O'Hara... "I just can't think about that today. I'll think about that tomorrow.... cause after all... Tomorrow is another day!"