When Life gives you lemons...

I make cupcakes.

Life has been crazy lately. Crazy.

End of February, my uncle had a stroke.  A bad one.

As my luck had it, I lost my keys with his apartment key on it, so we had to have the firefighters break in his window.  

A couple weeks later my grandpa had multiple mini strokes.

My uncle is still with us.  My grandpa's funeral was two weeks ago.

My uncle is stubborn.  He still makes me laugh every day.

He keeps us busy. 

Emily got her braces off...is she not beautiful!

Jack went to Jr. Prom with his girlfriend, Bobbi.

Mr. GQ

Bean lost her bracelet around St. Patty's day...self explanatory note.















And Morris broke his his nose.  Yep, Life is good.

Nibblet...a love story

Just a short sweet story...
Our street is famous for strays.  People drop off cats and they multiply like you wouldn't believe.  We've taken many to the Humane society, and a couple little kittens we've found were just too weak and we had to bury them.  Late last year we heard meowing on the side of the house.  I checked it out and found this itty bitty kitty.  It looked like a little bear.  I left it there a couple hours in hopes that the mom would find him, but she never came back, so a half hour before closing time, we took it to the humane society.  The people there said it was well taken care of, no fleas and full belly, so most likely someone dropped it off.  The assured us it would find a home, but because it was so tiny it had to be fostered.   The following week we heard meowing again.  From under the house this time.  Jack crawled under and came back out with a tiny little orange kitten.  I'm thinking it was probably from the same litter maybe.  Humane society was closed, but as luck had it, his girlfriend's mom was a foster for kittens.  So she had us drop it off at her house and she was going to nurse it until it was big enough for the humane society to find it a home.  Jack's girlfriend (Bobbi) fell in love with it.  2 weeks before Christmas Bobbi's mom told Bobbi that it was time for Nibblet to go and he left just like that.  Bobbi was heartbroken, but a post on Facebook told everyone that Nibblet would always be her baby.  Christmas eve found Nibblet back in the arms of Bobbi.  All because someone dropped it off at our house and the kitten was too small to be adopted...
True story

Time

Has it really been this long?  So much has happened, I don't even know where to start, so I guess I will just throw out some random updates.  Fall was busy as far as weddings were concerned.  Someone (I'm not mentioning any names...ahem ME) got a job.  Don't get me wrong, I miss spending all day at the school volunteering, but it's helping pay bills.  If you ever need a P.I., forensic consultant, training in various crime scene methods, or someone to review a crime scene...the people I work for have you covered, and I'll answer the phone.
If that wasn't enough, kids keep us busy.  On top of me picking and dropping off my kids at 3 different schools, I've been picking up 3 kids extra and going to a 4th school.  It's hectic and I hate all the driving, but it's helping out a friend.  I've been taking my uncle to daily radiation treatments at the cancer center on top of his normal doctors appts. as well.  Happy to say his voice is coming back a bit.

Winter break was a bit more frustrating than I would have liked.  Poor Bean had it rough.  Right before school ended she came down with a mild case of chicken pox...I say mild because she's already had it and the shot before.  She scratched one and it turned into a staph infection.  So after almost completing the antibiotics, her little body decided to have a severe allergic reaction and she was covered head to toe in an ugly looking rash.  Thankfully it's faded a bit and should be completely gone before school starts.   Now her gums are hurting where she has a molar coming through.

D.C.

Last month (my birthday to be precise) Phil and I flew out to D.C. without the kids.  We had a great time and our "office" window was awesome.  We took up the tourist name for a day and even did the metro.  We saw the monuments, White House, Capital, the Smithsonian museums etc., but mostly enjoyed our time with our good friends who let us invade their home and stay with them for the week.  On a side note, did you know that Night at the Museum wasn't not even filmed in the actual museum?  It was filmed partly in the Air and Space museum, but the majority of the museum was filmed in Canada. Those pictures will be posted at a later date.

 Then we took a day and went to D.C.'s neighbor Virgina, and just enjoyed the falls. Great Falls National Park is a place I highly recommend if you are in the area.  It's beautiful.  The couple that flew us out there for their engagement pictures were so cute. 

one month later...

 So a month later, I'm still here.  School started today.  Yay.  I really did not expect to be so busy that I could not post like I wanted.  There are still tons of pictures to post.  Lots to update.  But right now I'm dealing with 8 year old attitude.  Any tips on how to deal with that?  Morris refuses to eat what I make, because according to him "I don't make anything he likes".  How is it that for everyone else he is a complete angel and for me he is the opposite?

Lizzie 5th, Morris 3rd and Bean 1st.

Allison 8th, Emily 12th and Jack 10th.

So much to post

Summer Camp!  The kids had a blast...

 Morris and Bean's fishes.  I love how they turned out.

 

 The Pensacola Beach water tower.  Allison made one as well, but she's staying the night with a friend so I will get a shot of her when she gets back.

Emily turned 17.

Emily with some of her friends at McGuires.  Emily loves McGuires.  We have been bringing her since she was little.  Rich, the guy next to her, is awesome.  We've known him for years.  Emily got on stage with him and signed one of his songs.  It was a blast and I know she loved going with her friends.

See this backback?  All packed.  Ready to go.  Jack is going to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.  We've been having him wear his hiking boots everywhere he goes.  70 miles in 10 ten days is what his troop is going to do. 

Flying by

Summer is.  I can't believe it's been almost a month since the last post.  Does that tell you how busy it's been here?  Weddings almost every weekend. Art camp for the kids (more on that later) they had a blast! Baking.  Dog eating every cord in the house it seems.  Rain.  Free movies on Mondays.  more rain.  I even took pictures that I wanted to post, but have no idea where they are on the computer.