Thanksgiving

This was the first year that Scott was able to get off work for Thanksgiving on both on Wednesday and Friday. We had a great weekened! We drove over to Scott's family on Wednesday and the boys enjoyed playtime with his cousins. Then Thursday was the big turkey day. We celebrated lunch with about 30 or so family members on Scott's mom's side at his Granny Turner's house then supper was at Scott's parent's house for his Dad's side of the family. We were all turkied out by the end of that day.

We drove back home that evening so we could be home for Black Friday shopping. I know call me crazy but we sincerely needed the discounts this year. So on the drive home we decided to stop at Toys R' Us in Douglasville, GA which was opening at 10pm. Well that was laughable! The line just to get into the store was a mile long. Seriously...a mile long. It curved and curved around the parking lots of the grand shopping center. I thought I wanted to stand in line and just see what the store was going to be like, but after waiting about 30 minutes I decided it wasn't worth it. As we came on home I got another wild idea to stop at the Wal-mart in Leeds, Al for the midnight sale. I know, call me crazy again! And it was crazy. It was so crowded. If you've never experienced a Black Friday midnight sale at Wal-mart, well, let me just say there is a whole breed of humanity that you haven't seen. These people were serious! They were laying their bodies over pallets of merchandise to guard their spot in line until they unveiled things at 12:01. And when the clock struck, I began to fear for my life. The boxes began flying and I nearly got hit by a huge cardboard crate pallet sized lid. I had to jump back and I bumped into the person behind me. Then to top it off, the hot item that they were all shuffling for was not the latest greatest toy. NO, it was towels for $1.33 each. Now, I know that is a cheap price, but come on, we are talking Wal-mart quality here. The Sherriff's department was there but they wouldn't have been able to do anything if a serious riot had broken out. Well, it wasn't quite that bad but it was wild. Memories...for sure. When all was said and done I got some good bargains and finished my shopping for the boys at 1:30am as they slept in the van sound asleep. I've been asked if it was worth it and I have to say this year it was. I was able to save a ton and still provide for others for Christmas! We got home about 2am that morning and went straight to bed.

Glitter Graphics

2010 Christmas card

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Halloween Weekend

Halloween is such a fun time for the boys. This year since Halloween was on Sunday we celebrated all weekend long. Saturday morning we went to a Grand Opening of an Outlet mall nearby and had fun with the cartoon characters. That night Ryan was my date to our Children's minister's wedding. Then the boys dressed up and went begging for candy. Ryan was Ironman and Aiden was a groom with a sign around his neck that read "Will you marry me?" Oh how the ladies loved him! We had great fun on Sunday as well at our church's Trunk-or-Treat. I got this crazy idea to make Ryan's costume this year. He was a mummy--and a darn good mummy. I've got the hot glue burns to remember it by too! But Aiden used Ryan's old pirate costume. They rocked the place, they were so adorable! After that we came back to our own neighborhood and finished off the block. Lot's of fun!

10/23-Hayride at the Akridge farm & Sleepover

Every year our Sunday School has a hayride and bonfire. Well, this year it has been so dry that the bonfire was just a little cookout for smores. We had great fun even still. The neighbors had their horses out and the boys got to ride them. Wow! they loved it. Lots of fun was capped off by Ryan having his first sleepover as part of his b-day present. Those boys had fun all night long and were tired pups.

Good attendance and good Citizen award--10/22

Ryan was so excited to get his perfect attendance ribbon I just had to take a photo of him. The next week he also got a Good Citizen ribbon. I'm still not exactly sure what this all entales but he explains it as an award that goes to the kid who has been the most helpful for the the week. I don't know how often they give these out but he was thrilled to boast his ribbon even afterschool!

Happy 6th Birthday Ryan! - 10/19

because we have so many birthdays in October we celebrated last weekend we went out to Georgia with Scott's family. But for Ryan's official party we went to Lightning Strikes for some fun bowling. We decided to limit it to only 8 boys this year. It was the perfect number! The bowling alley gave him a shirt that they were allowed to color and have all the boys sign, all the popcorn and drinks you can imagine, and even provided quarters for the game room. The most improved bowler award would definitely have to go to his friend Charlie. He had never been before and by the time we were winding down he was getting strikes. We all had great fun!

North Carolina trip 10/9-10/10

These are a bit out of order bc I have had so little time to update the blog. I'm getting there but still so much to catch up. This was the first overnight trip we have taken without the boys since Aiden was born. Man was it a welcomed getaway. We went to North Carolina and visited Hendersonville, Flat Rock, Chimney Rock, and Ashville. On the drive back to Georgia we took part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and it was absolutely stunning! The leaves were pretty much at their Fall peak and just gorgeous! Thank you Grandaddy & Gigi for allowing us to get away while the boys got spoiled by you!

Homecoming Parade-10/17/10

One of the great things about living in Trussville is the small town America feel. Each year the school has a little homecoming parade. And let me stress the word little. But the fun is that the whole town comes out to support the school. It's fun bringing out your chairs and letting the young kids look up to the high school football team and dream of one day being there too! Ryan found one of his new friends in his class and just had to hang out with him. So we all waved at the band, firetrucks, homecoming court, cheerleaders, and of course the football team and enjoyed catching the candy that was thrown. Great times, great memories!

First Friday "Spirit" day

Ryan and his 2nd grader "reading buddy"
Their buddies got to help them with an apple investigation.

Classroom shots

Transition to new school

We were a bit concerned for Ryan changing schools so early in the school year but it was for nothing. The transition could not have been smoother. I took him on Tuesday, 9/21 to register him and they ended up letting him start school that day! It was such a surprise. I wasn't quite ready for it, but when we went to his classroom he knew about six kids already in there. It was great. On top of that, we got a great teacher that attends our church! Thank you God for working in all of this! Ryan was so excited and the kids in the class were too! I was so excited when a friend of mine was at the school this day and just happen to get all of these pics.

Love the wide-eyed look of wonder in his eyes! He is just taking it all in!

First day at lunch.
Hot dogs his first day!

Update from Sunday 9/19--Moving Day

All along I had been saying I won't truly breath until we are in the house. Well, today was moving day. We were suppose to have possesion at 5pm and the sellers called and said they had issues and were afraid they couldn't be out in time. They said their movers basically extorted them and they had to rent a new truck and repack everything. They wanted to see if we could come help them move. uh....no that was a big no! So they asked if we could just wait until around 6pm which was fine by us. They ended up calling our agent back and forth and finally said they were going to have to leave some stuff for us. This was ok with us. We just wanted in the house. When we got there they had left some trash but it was no big deal, we could easily haul it away. But the amazing thing is what all they left. Here is a semi-comprehensive list.

couch

oversized chase chair

grill

bike

kitchenette table

amazing patio furniture, table 4 chair, 2 chase lounge chairs

tv

Hoover vacuum cleaner

ottoman

stereo

art work

gum ball machine

desk chair pad

tons of stuff in the garage (Scott was happy)

a bottle of Champagne and a $20 bill to haul trash away.
We were really overwhelmed with their kindness. We would have hauled the trash away without any problems anyway. So we are now learning about how to post things on Craig's list. Hopefully we can earn a little money to pay for some of the updates in the house that we want to do.

Update from closing on 9/17

Life was a whirlwind so these updates will be short. I hate that I haven't been better about updating it bc my memory won't last and sometime down the road I will wish I could remember the events. But for now this is the best I can do. Hopefully Scott will be my memory as usual! I started packing immediately and each day was lived by faith - praying and hoping all would go through. Once all offers were accepted and inspecitons passed, I was breathing a bit more but then an issue with our roof came up. The buyers wanted it repaired. Each day we had something going on, either roof repair, or electrical repairs. It was crazy down to the last minute. Then we finally made it to the closing table and the buyers for our house didn't have their money wired in time. Thankfully they went ahead with the closing and all was ok. But then when we went to close on our new house we had an issue with our new homeowner's insurance. They called and said they had quoted us the wrong price. Well, Scott was so upset but on the phone with them for a LONG time as we were signing stuff. I was just praying the whole time and lo and behold he got it for even LESS than what they quoted us! So that meant our mortgage payment would be even less.

GOD was ALL over this! I truly believe it! We have been blessed & provided for in so many ways. Even down to the moving van. We had a garage sale last weekend to get rid of some stuff but also to help pay for some movers. Since we don't have any family in the area we didn't want to exhaust our friends like crazy. We did have a few friends that came and helped load and unload some things! Huge thank yous go out to Brian Sewell, Keith Finnegan, and Daniel Bates. Even friends like Katie Bates were amazing in helping keep the kids so we could get work done. We also were so blessed by Scott's boss. He let us use the work truck to move our stuff. So when Monday comes we will only have to use the 2 Men and a Truck for the heaviest and largest things we couldn't get. Amazing!

Update from Friday 9/3

Out of the blue on Wednesday August 18th we had someone come and look at our house. We really had almost given up hope now that Ryan had started school. Thursday, 8/19 we got a call from our agent saying the couple was interested in giving an offer and we received the offer on Saturday,8/28-my birthday! We were going out to eat for my b-day still not knowing if we were going to get the offer and then Lee (our agent) called and sang happy b-day to me! I knew immediately we got the offer! It was lower than we wanted so we countered. But at least the wheels were in motion. We went to look at some houses on Saturday and Sunday, and did some verbal negotiations. But it wasn’t until Monday that we actually had the offer in our hands. We found a house that would be just amazing for us. The yard is crazy sloped though, but we really have our hearts set on the house. Monday, 8/30 night we met with our mortgage broker and got pretty good news. Tuesday, 8/31 we made the offer on the house. Wednesday, 9/1 we had the inspection on our house and Thursday, 9/2 we received a counter back from the offer we made. It was much higher than we had hoped. So all last night and today (Friday-9/3) we have been sweating it because we don’t even know if the couple trying to buy our house will accept the inspection or not. And on top of that we don’t know if the couple we made an offer on will accept our counter. We are set to close on September 17th if all goes through. That means 3 weeks from today. We are dying here. I’m sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear from the inspection results. Oh man…this process has been so stressful. It seems so quick and concise just reading over it, but I have basically pulled my hair out, and my stomach is in knots. If we can finally come to an agreement, I won’t want to move for a long time!

Lord, this is your opportunity to show up. Please hear the prayers of your children and meet our needs here. We are asking for you to provide and to show us your power. Oh God you know our hearts, please provide.