A Morning Cache

My Dad had a doctor's appointment this morning so my Mom and I took my kids and my 2 nephews Geocaching. Nick was excited to go...Jared, not so much. Our first try was in the woods behind a big local church. We followed the geotrail (funny, that's what people call the trails that lead to geocaches) right to the cache. There wasn't even a lot of complaining about the underbrush we had to step over and around.


I was the first to spot the cache because it was barely hidden by decaying sticks. We covered it up much better for the next person.



Coming out of the woods Jared was yelling "This is the most fun I've ever had. Can you do another one?" Dramatic much?!?! We went to another cache nearby and couldn't make the find. There were mosquitoes everywhere and then I stepped into this lovely quick sand-clay boggy area. Nick and Jared pulled me out because my brand new white shoe was stuck.

We will go back again with Uncle Danny, the super Geo-sleuth this weekend!

The rest of the day should be fun for my parents. I'm going to lunch with my McSwain friends and then driving to Destin to have a date night with Dan. They'll have 5 kids until tomorrow afternoon! Say a prayer for Lou and Jeannie - they might just need it! :p

Rub-A-Dub-Dub, 5 Kids in a...Yard???

5 kids get stinky after a long day of playing. Rather than letting them each have a bath or a shower, Grandma got out the soap and and lathered them up outside. The kids used the slip 'n slide to wash the soap off.

Jared, my 12 year old nephew

Caden
Jaelyn washing her hair

Grandma helping Nick, my 8 year old nephew, with his hair

My Dad got in on the act with the water hose...spraying the soap off the kids as they ran away from him. Who knew a bath in the backyard could be so much fun!

All About the Water

Today has been a wonderful day. We headed to Malbis to meet my Mobile friend, Sarah, and her kids. We had originally planned to go to the Naval Air Museum, but stupid Obama was flying onto the base today. I knew security would be crazy getting on to the base so we didn't even try. Malbis is one of our favorite spots and the place Sarah and I met for the first time (in real life - we were internet friends before that) 5 years ago this summer.

We drove through some rain on our way so I was really worried when we got there. Thankfully, we never had rain, but they had had thunder and turned the fountains off. We sat for 10 minutes before I had the bright idea to fill our buckets up with water from the bathroom and play with our water guns. By the time we were ready for the second refill, the fountain water started flowing and we had a great 2 hours splashing around the water and soaking up the sunshine.

(Caden, Jaelyn, Hope, Allie, Halle and Hudson)

Sarah has truly been a wonderful friend. She's moving from Mobile and it's a little sad because we have no clue where we'll both end up or when we'll see each other again.

We came home and went straight back to playing in the water with Nick and Jared.

Jaelyn blasting Jared

Nick

My Nephew Jared's Guest Blog

In a Galxy Far, Far, Away...... ( Boy would Caden love this. )

It has been aweome being here! Like, so far I've tricked Caden into signing contracts, rubbed a fat cat's belly, and stared down the Grim Reaper himself, Sebastian. Since nothing else is happening, I guess I'll just.... I really like how this odd site has a little icon everytime I type in Caps. ThErE iT gOeS AgAiN!!!!1111!!!!!!11!!1!1!1!1 How often does my Aunt blog here? Like, is she pretending she's on twitter and goes, "I am typing on Twitter right now." Anyway, I forgot to mention about the trip to here. It was way better than going in that card board box of a truck! The saturn is like a nice, squishy marshmalllow that needs lots of repairs. I have said everything I felt like typing. I just want to say that certain relatives who give me NeoCash cards for no reason at all are the bestest peoplez evur! NEOCASH IS AWESOME! We're about to take a picture, maybe. Yay! Bye every person stalking this blog, post-thingy.

Sincerely,
Jared- The Awesomest Person In This House

It Tastes Like Summer

I have great memories of home made ice cream growing up...well, actually my most distinct memory is of watching the ice cream maker fly out of the back of my Grandpa's truck and break into a gazillion pieces on the interstate. My cousin, Dawn, and I got into so much trouble because we were supposed to be watching it ~ like we could stop it. I had a good laugh the other night with my family as we teased my Grandpa about it.

So...all the talk of ice cream wouldn't leave my brain. I got out the recipe book from my parent's ice cream maker today and headed to the store for the ingredients to make Strawberry ice cream. The kids brought home blueberries they picked at Granddaddy's house so I made Double Berry Ice Cream.


It was the perfect dessert for a summer day....home made ice cream on almost home made chocolate chip cookies!!!

Backyard Fun

One of the many things I love about visiting my parent's house is their backyard. I hate our postage stamp and can't wait for room for the kids to run. We took advantage of the backyard today even though it was 100 degrees with a heat index of too stinking hot. Grandpa got out his lawn mower and took the kids for a ride after he was begged for a few hours. I bought the kids a slip 'n slide at the store for $5 that was perfect for the hot day. We also took advantage of the trees and did a bit of climbing.

Our First Pensacola Outing - Geocaching

Have I mentioned we have become geocaching addicts??? I might have and if I haven't, then we are geocaching addicts. I was checking out the local caches as we got close to town. We went hunting a "tracker bug hotel" today. My mom stayed home, but my dad came hunting with us.

Normally, Dan is the one to find the cache. His GPS on his phone seems to work better or he must be more in tune with nature than I am. I don't know, but I was so happy today when I was the first one to spot the cache and Dad and Dan were wandering way away from me looking in the other direction.

In all fairness though, caches in Florida aren't hidden nearly as well as the ones we've found in Maryland. This one wasn't even hidden all the way. We left a travel coin and took a Mr. Roto Rooter tracker out. Mr. Rooter has been in Australia, Germany, France and now the US. Very cool.


Our next stop with a small cemetery on Kingsfield Road. There were 2 caches hidden around the edge of this cemetery. It was kind of sad...unkept graves, underbrush growing up everywhere. Again, the caches weren't hidden very well.


Our last stop was a well hidden garden behind the extension service. My parents have lived here since 1981 and have used the extension service. No one knew this garden was here. It was beautiful and free. If we lived here, we would visit it often. Dan made the find here after wandering around and around. Admittedly, I was more interested in the flowers than the cache.

We took out this beautiful stained glass geocoin to rehide somewhere else.

And because I couldn't go to a garden without taking pictures, here are my favorites...

We were 4 for 4 today!

Our Trip from Jaelyn's Journal

This is with Jaelyn's spelling and punctuation; so read creatively...

Once upon a time yesterday Daddy drove. But momy was the super vizzer evry single hour mommy would pass out silly bands and even snacks and she would allso even give DSs. spirl note books and colering books and finily but not least she would pass out book. So we read played DS's ate snacks. Some snacks were banana or teddy grams chees stiks and books finily we got to the hotell. after the holl intire car ride. We put the cats in the hotell. Then went to one place to eat but it was to busy. So we went to another we waitit and waited to eat and finilly got to eat. So we ate and gobled up food. Afte that we went back to the hotell it was amost nine but beafor nine. We drawd and read. finilly mommy and daddy said it is nine aclock so we went to bed. I had to get colf medisin so I screamed and got my hair sticky. So momy wet it and I hardlly slep last night. Finilly morning so me and Daddy went to eat breafast. Then Caden Allie and Mommy came to eat then. We left the room and got on the road again! And we did the same egzact thing we read and ate snacks and we are allmost thair now! mabe about fiffty five more minits and we will be there finnilly. and get to walk unbelliveeble!

On Our Way to Florida

Today was a pretty good day…as good as spending 9 hours in a car can be. We left Abingdon around 8:30 after a stop at the Red Box, Chick-fil-a and the WaWa for a monsterously large Mountain Dew. Dan’s job for the day was chauffer. Mine was entertainment director and I came prepared. The kids had new movies, new coloring books, activity books, crayons, chapter books, stuffed animals, DSes and games, joke books and madlibs. My job was just to pass them out. I also had a stash of silly bandz (thank you Krissy). With each hour that passed that the kids didn’t complain about being in the car, I gave out a silly band. When we stopped at the hotel, they each had 9 bandz that were threatening to cut off their circulation. I might have to rethink my silly band strategy.

The only thing funny that happened yesterday was in the middle of Virginia. We were stuck in traffic for “grass maintenance” when someone in the next lane over yelled at us and waved. It was a guy Dan works with. He and Dan had a nice conversation as we were idling our way down the interstate. It was one of those random odd things.

About 3, we looked at the map and decided Knoxville would indeed be a good place to stop. I was so anti-smart phone, but I must tell you again, I LOVE IT! I got online, found us a hotel and made the reservations from the road. So cool – I also stayed up to date with Facebook, games, emails, and my message boards from the road :p. Unfortunately, as we pulled up to the hotel, I had picked the one hotel that we’ve stayed in before that was horrible. How in the world I managed that, I have no idea…in all of Tennessee. Anyway, our stay was much better this time. No stinky, smelly room, although our non-smoking room was in the middle of the smoking floor. It’s gotta take a lot of brains to plan that out.

The Jedi Masters

Blooms

I love seeing my yard coming alive with colors.

Hydrangeas with a touch of pink

Jaelyn's Spiderwort that we rescued for $1 at Lowes

Yummy, Yummy Peaches - Golf ball sized now, but in a month or so...Bubbly Hot Peach Cobbler. I can't wait!

A beautiful Trumpet Vine that is slowing covering our fence

Another $1 rescue, beautiful sunny day lillies

The Tooth Is Out

After begging, Allie agreed to let me put ambesol on her tooth so we could pull some more. I was teasing her and asked if she'd let me pull her tooth out with pliers and she said yes. I was being silly and ran downstairs to get the pliers out of my toolbox (don't worry, Mom, I cleaned them first).

I raced upstairs to find Allie in Dan's lap. He told me to stay back, that he almost had it. The next thing I knew, Dan pulled Allie's second bottom central tooth out of her mouth.

The root was kind of long and well attached so it bled a bit. Her lateral is a tiny bit loose so I'm going to start wiggling it and do everything we can to get that tooth in where it belongs!

Random Stuff

We went from summery weather last week to cool and rainy today. It's been in the 60-70s the last few days. I had my windows open yesterday and it was so nice. Unfortunately Caden and Dan have colds. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's just a cold. I need to run errands today, but Caden is on the couch with benadryl in his system. Every time I mention going anywhere he starts to whine and cry. I think he'll stay put and I'll run my errands tonight when Dan gets home. I'm on the hunt for Madlibs and 2 jars of elusive peach salsa. My dad fell in love with it here and took a jar home. That jar's gone and he can't find it in Pensacola. You should see my pile of stuff to take home to give to other people. Pretty soon, we are going to have invest in one of those boxes to go on top of the car.

Allie's tooth is still wiggling. She's let me try to pull it a couple of times, but the root on the front is still in there really well. We need to push it back, I think, but the other tooth is behind it so we can't. It makes me so sad every time I look in her mouth. I know a good orthodontist can fix her smile when she's older, but it's her smile. I'm scared her other teeth are going to do the same thing.

I'm still keeping track of my food in my IPhone app. I'm actually slightly addicted to using it. Anyway, Dan picked up Panera for dinner last night and I was SHOCKED to see that my favorite chicken salad sandwich has over 1,000 calories and 55 grams of fat. That's just insane. I know it's packed with mayo...but seriously? That's 75% of my calories for the day and it's way, way, way over the amount of fat I need. No more Panera for me! Well, not no more...I just need to plan better and make eating there a treat I only give myself once in a blue moon.

Jaelyn is driving me batty with getting dressed in the morning. We fought over her coat all winter and I couldn't wait for warm weather so the battles could stop. They haven't, they've just changed. Now the whine is "I don't know what to wear." She'll seriously stand in front of her dresser and cry for 30 minutes. She has clean clothes THAT FIT HER in her dresser. The other day it became so bad with her refusing to pick an outfit that I grabbed the first shirts and shorts I saw, that matched, and physically dressed her. The cry changed to "but it's too busy." Apparently plaid and cute cherries are too much for her, but she looked really cute. Last night, I told her to pick out her clothes before she went to bed. She didn't so I got out an outfit and told her that's what she would wear and I made her wear it this morning after another argument. I can't wait for summer when she can stay in the house all day and wear her PJs if that's what she wants. I see a nudist colony in Jaelyn's future. Wouldn't that make life easier :p ?!?!?

Our Tax Payer Payed Vacation

I thought I'd shared, but maybe I haven't. If I have and everyone already knows this, Sandi, this is for you :)!

Dan has a class at Eglin Air Force Base in Destin, FL. Home is Pensacola, which is just 2 hours away. Instead of going by himself and flying, Dan asked if the kids and I would like to tag along. Are you kidding? Of course! We are driving and the Army will pay mileage and a hotel along the way. We'll spend a week in Pensacola with my parents, the next week in Destin with Dan, and the last week back in Pensacola. We hadn't planned on going home this summer so this is a real treat. I've already got playdates with friends and a spa day planned (Serenity here I come for your Pina Colada Spa Special) and then of course, there's get togethers with cousins, sleep overs at Grandmother's and meals at all of my favorite places! I can't wait.

So, to all of you hard working, tax paying Americans...Thank you! :p

Allie's Ploblem ~ no, that's not a typo :)

Allie came running into my room this morning to tell me some very important information. She said she "could feel something hard and bumpy in her mouth behind her teeth when she woke up so she looked in the mirror and there's something white." She was very alarmed. I turned on the lights and squinted into her mouth and sure enough...her new tooth is coming in behind her baby tooth. Her baby tooth has been loose on and off for months now. It's really loose now, but only because she pulled the stopper out of a ball with her teeth. Allie immediated wanted to ask Baba what we should do since she knows everything about teeth. It was too early to call so we sent her a video...

I called the dentist's office once they opened and they told me to keep working the baby tooth and get it out of her mouth as soon as possible. She has an appointment to get her teeth cleaned the end of July. They'll check it then and see if there's anything they need to do. I don't want her to be a snaggle tooth until she a tweenager and can get braces. :(

A Hodge Podge

Apparently, I'm ignoring my blog again because I have a ton of small topics I've been wanting to post about for days all jumbled around in my head. Here they are in no particular order or relevance.

4 more sleeps and we leave for Florida. Dan hasn't heard anything about the other TDY so no news is good news. Joan asked me if I was all packed last week. Ha...I'm thinking about it. I really need to make a list for shopping tomorrow, but I won't do laundry or dig out my suitcases until Thursday. I did finally clean out our storage closet last night so I can reach suitcases when I need them. Our beachy stuff was located as well ~ not that we'll spend anytime at the actual beach since it might be covered in oil by the time we get there :( .

I got to work in the yard this weekend. I transplanted a few plants that are being swallowed by our butterfly bush. It's huge and the new one I planted last year that was 18 inches tall in March is now over my head. They must love our dry, hard clay. We also dumped new bark in the flowers beds after I expanded one to fit the above mentioned smothered plants. It looks so pretty. Jaelyn was a big helper. She was making up for getting up at 6 AGAIN. I've started calling us (Jaelyn and I) Grumpy and Grumpier in the mornings. I'm not sure who is who yet, but I am so tired of being woken up between 5 and 6:30 every morning. Neither of us do well on too little sleep.

Dan has been talking about disassembling the swing set for a while now. It was cheap when we bought it, but we knew it only need to last a couple of years. The swings were really getting rickety. He took the swing part off and left the fort and slide. Our yard is so small that just removing 2 swings doubled it's size. That's sad.

We had an amazing time this weekend at Nathan's birthday party. Nathan is Caden's best friend. He invited everyone to the party and Miss Krissy out did herself (even though she hadn't had electricity for about 20 hours when the party started). Everyone got a Star Wars costume complete with foamy light saber. They set up their huge water slide and passed out water balloons. The kids love playing with Mr. Ben, Nathan's Dad. Jaelyn especially had a ball blasting him with water and running. Ben has 2 boys, so he got a lesson in how mean and sneaky girls can be. The kids played hard for over 3 hours. They were all asleep within 15 minutes of going to bed. It was a quiet, peaceful night for me...Dan was at work. Phone duty stinks!

I've been calling Outdoor Rec at Aberdeen for weeks now trying to get the kids signed up for swim lessons. Finally today the right person answers and the kids are registered. We'll have a week when we get home from Florida to play, then swim lessons 4 days a week for 2 weeks, another week off, then 2 more weeks of lessons, another week off and school starts. It's going to be a fun summer! I learned that Mr. Lee, our favorite life guard, won't be life guarding this year. Allie and Jaelyn are going to be crushed when they hear because they had quite the crush on Mr. Lee last year.

More Reading

Jaelyn the Artist

I'm always looking for the area where my kids can excel and be proud of themselves. Jaelyn isn't too into school. She's a pretty average student who'd rather spend her time talking with her friends than listening to the teacher. For neo, academics are not her interest. Art, however, is. She loves to draw and paint. I'd like to sign her up for art classes when she gets a little older. Well...she came home today and told me she won't be bringing her ceramic house home this school year. Her art teacher is keeping it and sending it to the county art show. I'm so proud of her and she is equally as proud of herself! Way to go Jaelyn!

To see pictures of the aforementioned house...go here!

To Answer the Question

I've had a few people ask for the name of the book I'm using with Caden. It's called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Teeny Tiny Geocache

It took us forever to find this cache and we almost gave up twice. Jaelyn is the one with the eagle eyes who finally spotted it in a place we looked over and over again.