Oh Happy Week!

I swear I feel like we have been on a roller-coaster between last week and this week.

FRIDAY: Jake called me from work around 3:00pm and said, "pack your bag we are going to our 10 year reunion, see if you parents will watch Gus." In a frenzy I start trying on dresses and throwing cloths and shoes in a bag for me, Gus and Jake. When he gets home we are packed and ready to blast off! We dropped Gus and Buttercup off at my parents and away we went. Both second guessing such a long and quick trip, but we looked at each other and said, "You only live once and you only have one 10 year reunion." Away we went. We left around 7pm after a quick stop at Target, gas and food. We did not tell anyone we were going to make it to the reunion, but we kept taps on what a few of our friends were doing via FB. The all went out on Friday night and we were still driving when they were getting in....very funny drunk posts from a few! We got in around 4am, fell asleep at 5am and were up for 8am.....3 hours of sleep!!

SATURDAY: My father in law cooked a yummy breakfast and we visited with Sarah and Buster and the kids for a while then we headed to town because of all the shoes I brought none of them where quite right. We headed to Danny and Bridgette's because they had a huge bag of hand me downs for Gus!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Then we went to Marshall's. I bought a pair, but I was not sold on them. Off to Ross we go. I knew Ross would not disappoint and I was right! Found exactly what I was looking for! By this time we are both wearing thin and starving. We get Cane's and head to the rents house for a nap before the reunion. Friday was a near and dear friend of mine, Allison's birthday. I was going to wait and surprise her at the reunion, but something was telling me to call her before. I did! We played phone tag, but when we finally spoke we were just screaming and giddy that we were going to see each other! We made plans to meet at her house and ride with she and Robbie. We napped, showered and got dressed and away we went!

THE REUNION: When we got to the reunion it was a total shock for most that we were there because during the week I had told a few people that I did not think we were going to make it, so they were happy to see us! It was so nice to see old familiar faces and catch up with old friends! Everyone seemed to have had a blast. I know we did! Not long after we got there they started doing door prizes and people were telling me that my name was called (I had no idea they were giving the prizes away) and I was like, "for what?" Then I see someone holding up an ice chest...I won an ice chest! After the reunion no one wanted to part ways so most of the crowd went to Dooley's, a little dive bar that has a fabulous jukebox!! At 2am when the bar closed everyone still wasn't ready to leave so we all went to a classmate's parents house and swam until 4am!! What a blast, but we realized that we were certainly not 18 again and can't quite hang like we used too!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to our awesome sister and brother in law for coming get us at 4:30-5am and stopping at Mr. Ronnie's! Sarah and Buster, y'all are wonderful! Thank you so much!! By the time we went to bed it was 6am.

SUNDAY: Up and at it for 11am. My father in law was on his way back home with fried chicken! We showered, ate, visited and were back on the road headed home for 2pm, but had to make one more surprise visit with Maw! She was so happy to see Jake and I, but I know she was a little disappointed that Gus was not with us. Speaking of Gus, Saturday morning when I talked to mom he had woken up and thrown up a few times. She seems to think he had a little bug because after that he was fine...not 100% up to par, but still managing to laugh and play! By the time we left Maw's it was 3pm. We stopped to fuel up on gas and groceries and we hit the dusty trail. We were making great timing and north of Hattisburg, MS we caught some horrific weather and had to get off the interstate and wait it out for about 40 mins. I don't think we put the radio on until we were about 2 hours from home because we were just laughing and reminiscing about the night before! We drove up to the house at 12:15am, unloaded and I went to mom's and got in the bed with Gus. He came and snuggled right up to me. Oh I love that child so much!

RECAP OF THE WEEKEND IN HOURS: 18 hours = total driving time; 9.5 = total hours of sleep we got; 32-34 = total hours we were in Houma; the memories are PRICELESS and so worth every second of the trip!

MONDAY: Can we say dragging a$$ really bad?! However, I enter a picture of Gus into a contest and never heard anything back (there were not that many entries and his was one of the cutest). I had told Jake on the weekend that it was odd that I had not heard anything. Today I got a call to say that our picture won 3rd place and we would be receiving a $100 gift card from Visa!!!! Now that is how I like to start off a new week!!

TUESDAY: Not much happened today. Jake cut the grass and Gus was in bed for 8:30pm!

WEDNESDAY: Happy Birthday Mom! We went over to Nanny's house to celebrate Mom's birthday! We had a really good time and Gus enjoyed the cats, dog, dollhouse, radio and vacuum cleaner!! Nanny made two yummy cakes and sent us home with half of each one so it has been a challenge to keep Gus away from them!!

THURSDAY: Gus' little gal pal from across the street came over to play with him and they had a picnic lunch together! Oh yeah, our mailbox got hit yet again...3 times now. It was hanging on by one screw, we were able to put it back on the post, but Jake will have to add more screws to keep it on for future knocks!

FRIDAY: Well the day has just started. Gus slept until 8:45am so we should have a good day!!

Happy weekend!!! At least this post was not near as exhausting as the previous one!

Cloudy with a chance of Cheese-its!

More FREEBIES!

Ok, so the log cabin technically wasn't on a trash pile, but a friend of mine saved it from one and she did not want it so she offered it to me! Thank you, Amy!! We have already gotten so much use out of this little cabin!



Now this was on a trash pile. We had been looking for a bigger gas grill, but hadn't found what we were looking for until I looked out the window to see that our neighbor had this at the street. I called Jake and told him to take a look at it when he got home. He did and here it is at our house. Jake cleaned it and hooked it to some propane and all is good and it is ready to grill on! Thank you, neighbor!!

Way to go Jake!!

I have to brag on my husband today. The squirters in the car (the things that squirt the water on the windshield) quite working a few weeks ago and we have been crazy busy and haven't had a minute to fix them. He did his research during the week and today while Gus and I napped he got to the bottom of it. When we woke up he was headed out the door to the auto supply store so we went along for the ride. He changed out the part at the store and it did not work. He was a little disappointed, but did not give up. Instead kept his wheels turning to see what else it could be. Once we were home he got busy with the parts in the garage. About 45 minutes later he came in beaming! He had fixed the squirters for $18!! Way to save us $170...we were quoted somewhere around $190 to make them squirt again. A little time, patience and elbow grease goes a long way!!

Way to go, babe!!

Snowed in or Shut in??

WINTER: is the coldest season of the year, between autumn and spring. The season includes the time of year with the shortest days and longest nights.

I have a love/hate relationship with winter. I LOVE being inside all snuggled up and warm eating warm soups and sipping hot chocolate. I LOVE the snow and fires burning in a fireplace. I LOVE being in a cabin when it is cold out. I HATE having to get out in the cold and more so having to get Gus out in the cold. So far this year we have had snow 5 days. Nothing heavy, but enough for the schools to close two days in a row. So I digressed with the definition and winter and my few complaints....here is what I really wanted to say!

What a lazy, cozy weekend we had! We spent quality time as a family in the house all weekend long. We had nothing to do, no where to be and it felt good. We had snow Thursday afternoon and all day Friday and Saturday. It was so peaceful watching the snow fall. I found Jake, Gus and I sitting in front the window watching the snow come down several times during the last few days. We had enough snow to cover the ground and stick, but the sun came out today and melted the majority of it.

Technically we were not snowed in. We opted to be shut ins for the weekend!! We watched movies and LOTS of football (all 4 wildcard games), ate too much junk food, had a few drinks and stayed in our pajama's all day both days. The most productive thing we did all weekend was take our Christmas tree out of the house and rearrange a little in the living room! Oh and vacuum the needles from the tree!

While we were 'shut ins' Jake cooked two delicious dinners and some great pancakes for breakfast! (I love Saturday mornings.....I know I am not responsible for breakfast and I look forward to his yummy pancakes)!! Friday night Jake made quesadillas and they ROCKED! Today he put a roast in the crock pot and it came out really good! Thanks for the meals, Jake! I love when I have a few days off from cooking. By the end of the week I tend to get burnt out. I feel refreshed and am looking forward to the start of a new week!

Movie Night

After talking about it for over a year we finally had movie night. Well sort of. We put on Follow that Bird for Gusley and Endi and they were totally into, but were getting antsy and ready for bed. We decided we would watch an adult movie after they went to sleep......both Mommy's fell fast asleep with the babies for a little while. We decided it was too late to start a movie so we stayed up talking and laughing about who knows what as we were all delirious and exhausted from the work week! Even though we did not get to watch our movie just to see the kids reaction to the big screen was great! Thanks, Jake for bringing it home and setting it all up for us!! Can't wait to do it again!!

Gusley and Endi getting ready for the show!

I just love this picture....Tyler and Amanda leaning into each other like love birds and Gusley and Endi totally captivated by the movie!!

The set up....and Gusley on the arm of the sofa...I guess he wanted a better view?!

What a pleasant surprise

Yesterday, the 20th, Gus and I had headed out for our afternoon jog and we were well into the route and all of a sudden the stroller jolted an flung him forward and scared the ever living you know what out of me! The front wheel had somehow come off, but not all the way off and in the process bent the contraption that holds it in place. I attempted to push Gus in the stroller by holding up the front wheel (yep, riding a wheelie!!).....well this was a tough task going up hill, so we pulled off, took everything out of the stroller including the little one and I tried my hardest to bend the metal bracket back into place, but I ain't no mighty mouse, so it was not happening! I rigged it the best I could to get us home and sent Jake a text telling him what had happened.

Once we got home, I got busy and forgot about it. I did not remember until this morning, the 21st, when I woke to a text from Jake saying, "I fixed the stroller, have a great day!" Oh happy day!!!!!! I love my husband so much, especially when I do not even have to ask for something to get fixed and he pleasantly surprises me!! Thanks, Jake!! You are awesome.

Mother's Day Weekend

I have been drafting on this post for quite sometime and figured I'd better post it before Father's Day rolls around!! I had a fabulous Mother's Day Weekend. The Cenac trio headed to Chattanooga on Friday evening and stayed until Sunday evening!!

While in Chattanooga we took Gus to the Aquarium http://www.tnaqua.org/, which is awesome and is comprised of two buildings. We walked the pedestrian bridge across the River, enjoyed yummy food, lots of sightseeing and we even rode the Incline Railway http://www.ridetheincline.com/!! On Sunday, Jake made reservations for us to have lunch on a riverboat cruise. The food was fabulous and we all really enjoyed the journey! I have uploaded some our favorites from the weekend!!

The aquarium has a really nice seahorse exhibit. I came to this aquarium with camp Skyline back in 1994is and I remember the seahorse exhibit...it was even better this time!!

Seeing himself and seahorses!!

Fish that live in the Gulf of Mexico.....a little taste of home for us!

Nap #1

Taking a rest on the pedestrian bridge.

Really neat glass bridge...you can see the cars below you as you walk across!

Part 2 of the aquarium....rather interesting sting rays....

Jake's favorite picture from the trip. We were looking at some lady give a bird demonstration. I was a little apprehensive, but Gus loved to see and hear the birds, so I hung in there for my child! (I hate bird exhibits that have you trapped in and are hot and packed and this one WAS!)

Time to "pet" a stingray....the old man talking about them kept referring to Gus as a girl, then he finally asked over his microphone..is SHE a boy?

Daddy, can we get a pond like this??

Moving on to the butterflies.....

and the penguins....(We heart penguins!!)

Ginormous Sea Turtle....

Checking out the jellyfish!

Cuteness....

Yay for fish!!!

Gus and I in the "bubble"!!

Outside the aquarium.

Country Roads.....

got a flat tire.......

luckily it was during nap time........

At the bottom of the Incline Railway....

Here we go...UP, UP, UP

At the top! We made it!

Going DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!!!

Loving every minute of it!!

The thrill seekers......

Back on sturdy ground.....

Waiting to have dinner at Red Robin http://www.redrobin.com/. If you have never eaten at one, we suggest you give it a try!!!! AWESOME!!

Coloring with Mommy!!

Mother's Day morning getting a new tire. No more donut!!!!

On the riverboat, waiting for lunch to be served.

Handsome Duo!!!

Another one of Jake's favorites....

He had a blast on the boat........

After lunch we went for drive and came across this hang-gliding ramp. There were tons of folks preparing to jump so we pulled off and watched a few. This, my friends, is something to see!!!! These few pictures do no justice!

Waiting for a 60+ year old man to jump!

There he goes.......

fly, fly, fly away!

Almost home......looks like someone had a busy weekend!!!

Jake and Gus thank you both so much for such wonderful, memorable 2nd Mother's Day! I had the best time and it is so good to know how much I am appreciated by you two!! I love you both with all my heart and you two are the most important people in my entire life. Thank you!

Mom, hope you had a great Mother's Day and thank you for keeping Buttercup for us. You are truly an inspiration to me and I only hope that I can be as good a mother to Gus as you have been to me. Thank you and I love you!!