quick post tonight

I'm pretty tired so will keep this short and sweet. Yesterday we took GG to the airport and am happy to say she made it home safely and without any difficulty. I spent the rest of the day in mourning. And when I wasn't mourning I ate. I ate a ton yesterday but at least I got a good workout in. The kids played outside a lot. In the sandbox on the back deck and then in the driveway with chalk later. We added Thomas to our sidewalk chalk art.

For dinner I made a Summer Veggie and Pasta Salad. It had penne pasta, sugar snap peas, zucchini and tomatoes with a white wine vinegar and dijon mustard sauce. It was good, even the kids ate a bunch of it.




This morning we went to church so I could volunteer. The child care workers were happy to see Lauren since this is the first Thursday she's come with me. Normally she's at school. The kids played in the playground while I helped to set up for Sunday school. On our way home we stopped in the grocery store for a few staples and both kids were perfect angels. Back home it was lunch and a nap. I have been tired all day!

After nap the kids played outside while I made dinner.

We had Shrimp and Linguine fra diavolo from the food network site. My sister-in-law and mom had made this earlier and recommended it. I looked it up and fra diavolo means "brother devil" in Italian. must be due to the spicy red pepper flakes.kids serving...the first one. Lauren had 3rds of the pasta and Tyler cleaned his plate. I guess it wasn't too spicy for them.

After dinner we went to our community group meeting and then back home for bed. I can't wait to go to bed tonight. Hopefully this tired funk I've been in will clear up tomorrow. I will definitely work out to get some more energy. G'night all.

our final day with GG

Today was a somber day. The air was quite humid (and 90 degrees) but it was also filled with the sorrowful knowledge that GG was flying home tomorrow.

The kids played in their newly painted and dried cardboard house. Check out Lauren's very swollen eye. I gave her Benadryl after breakfast and as of this evening it looks much much better. Poor girl.
To take full of advantage of GG's last day I took off during the kids' nap to get my nails done and also a pedicure. I went from the typical square nails to a more oval look. I'm not too fond of them as of yet. They seem almost too "oval" to me. What do you think? (I ask these questions knowing that I hardly get any comments at all....so no hard feelings if you just read this and never comment. hmph.)

I got home in time from the nail salon to watch General Hospital. I'm pretty sure that GG is addicted by now and will go home and watch this daily. This would be a good thing because GH is seriously the ONLY life like soap that's worth watching. All agreed?!


For dinner I made Chicken with Capers.

This was very tasty. GG, Matt and I loved it and even Lauren and Tyler cleaned their plates. Of course to their plates I added strawberries and cherry tomatoes. For dessert I made my first attempt at Lemon Bars. GG tells me my mom makes a very delicious Lemon Bars but she's neglected to give me her recipe. The ones I made tonight are just so so...so no pics or recipe. =)

After dinner the kids went out to play and color with chalk while I vacuumed and GG dusted. The kids and Daddy! came up with some great chalk art. Very much photo worthy.

"Salty"

"Henry and his tender"

Later it was bath and story time for the kids. We're still working on bedtime and it appears I'm going to have to sign off this posting and put the kids to bed. Have a good evening and pray for a safe trip home for GG tomorrow.

just another (not so) manic monday

We started off the day by heading off to Atlanta to have lunch with Matt. We went to Whole Foods Market and had their stromboli (GG and I) and pizza (Matt and the kids). When we pulled into the parking lot Tyler started chanting "coo-KIE." I wasn't aware that he recognized the Whole Foods parking lot as the place where he gets cookies after eating a good lunch. It was pretty cute.

Back home and after a nap Lauren woke up with a swollen eye. After some inspection I determined it to be a small bug-bite on the outside of her eye lid causing the inflammation. Poor girl swells up like her Mama. I gave her some Benadryl but it stayed swollen until bedtime. It didn't really bother her much after she got used to not being able to open it all the way. Here she is on the sofa "getting used to it."




When Daddy got home he sat on the sofa with the kids and put his feet up after a hard day of work. Tyler, always wanting to be like his Daddy, put his feet up too. I just couldn't pass up this picture opportunity. ...way too sweet.
Despite having a fridge full of leftovers from yesterday's meal I decided to make something new. I made Ravioli w/ zucchini and green onions and also spoon bread. I'm not finding the recipes on the internet to link to so if you're interested, let me know. The ravioli dish was just so-so but the spoon bread was a good idea. I'm thinking of trying it with just regular corn bread. It just looks pretty cool in a dish.

Here's a close-up of the spoon bread.

After dinner Matt went to Home Depot to pick up some more plumbing tools. (Remember, his big project of late is the bathroom in the basement.)

While he was gone I brought the cardboard house outside for some paint and decorations. The kids had fun coloring, painting, stamping and stickering the house.

even GG got into the fun

It was a nice warm evening and as long as the breeze kept up it was comfortable sitting out on the back deck.

At about 7:30 we headed inside to clean up, have a snack, get PJs on, brush teeth, read 4 books and then off to bed for the kiddos.

Currently GG and I are watching the Bachelorette (who is from Newnan, GA) and Matt is across the street...hopefully...winning at poker.

g'night all.

uneventful week (until today)

As you can tell by the title it was a pretty boring week. Poor GG is probably sick of my sofa (or davenport...as she calls it) She won't admit it though...always saying she's having the time of her life and just loving on those kids. I can't believe the 4 weeks is winding down so quickly. I will be heart broken to see her go.

Here's a quick recap:

Wednesday: absolutely nothing. This week I didn't even go to the grocery store and only made meals out of what we had in the pantry. Wednesday was pesto pasta night. The kids ate up the pesto pasta even though I made them buttery noodles thinking they wouldn't touch the green stuff. Now I know better. And to talk about the DH....Matt worked late tonight as he's very busy with a project right now.

Thursday: I left the kids with GG while I volunteered at church and then picked up a prescription ($80...can you believe that?!) and some milk. Later that night (about 5 min. after Matt got home from working late) we again left the kids with GG and went to a BBQ for our community group. I made pomegranate-lemonades that I found off another foodie blog I often read. For the most part they were liked but I noticed some kids dumping it out saying it was too tart. oh well...how can you compete with Southern sweet tea at these BBQs?! Back home, GG said the kids were perfect angels and that Lauren is a big help with cleaning up the toys.

Friday: Let's see...I ran out of foundation (make-up) and noticed that Lancome on-line did not have my favorite type in stock so we had to go to Dillard's to get it instead. (unimportant side-note: Lancome has discontinnued the Photogenic foundation that I use...boo) I was able to get their last 2 remaining bottles so I have awhile now until I need to find a new foundation...any beloved and CHEAPER suggestions?

That night GG offered to stay with the kids while Matt and I went next door to have dinner with the Hancocks and the Corbitts. While GG and the kids had leftovers and quickly made cheese quesadillas, we had steaks, potatoes, salad and corn. I ate soooo much. If a serving of steak is a deck of cards than I had 2 or 3 decks. Needless to say my quota of red meat is filled for the month. We stayed out a little too late (although we had fun) and the next day we were a little bit tired.

Saturday: We were too tired to do much all day. Strike that...I was too tired to do much. Matt mowed our lawn and the neighbors lawn and then did a trip with the kids to Home Depot. He's a trooper. I spent the day reading my latest book. "Pope Joan" by Donna Cross.

For dinner Friday I made up tuna cakes from the last 2 cans of tuna I had in the pantry. They actually turned out very good...despite them just being a pantry dinner. After dinner we all went to church and learned how we should be treating our enemies. It was a good sermon and I will hopefully keep it in mind when I deal with people who get on my nerves. =) The kids had fun and Lauren even got to leave with a tiger mask and a cup full of animal crackers.

Sunday: After resting most of the previous day I was ready to roll today. After a breakfast of cereal and toast, I wrote up our weekly dinner menu and grocery list. Then I did a quick yet very hard workout in the basement while GG and the kids watched TV and played. After showering I headed off to the grocery store so I could be back in time for big Tyler's birthday party. This was a pool party at his Grandma's house and was a lot of fun. I'm pretty bummed I didn't bring a camera because the kids had a blast. In addition to the big pool in the backyard they had a couple of baby pools that Lauren and Tyler had a lot of fun in. Tyler was the braver of the two because he was actually jumping into Daddy's arms from the edge of the big pool. We had a lunch of hot dogs and potato chips....lots of potato chips. We left the party a tad early because we had plans for a big Thanksgiving dinner in June for this evening.

Invited guests were Dana and Buddy and their kiddos and also one of Matt's co-workers who was over helping Matt with some plumbing in the basement bathroom. Dana brought over all the fixins and did almost all of the fixing of the wonderful huge and scrumptious meal. We had fried chicken strips, pulled pork butt, mashed potatoes, squash, dressing, collards and black eyed peas. I hope I didn't leave anything out. I ate my plate clean and so did Lauren. Tyler was so tired after swimming earlier but even he ate a lot despite almost falling asleep in his chair. It was so much fun and the food was absolutely wonderful. I'm hoping this will make GG reconsider returning to the west where the food isn't nearly as tasty.... lol.

And this brings us to the pictures for this post. Enjoy.

Here's a candid picture of GG watching Dana prepare the meal.

Dana and I

I'm holding tea bags for our sweet tea we made.

GG wanted a picture of her food and also the beautiful chef.

a close-up of our meal. (clockwise: onions & collards, squash, pulled pork, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, black eyed peas and dressing)

Tuesday (but it felt like a Monday)

I love Monday holidays because they make Tuesday's seem like Monday's but then it's actually Tuesday. Know what I mean?? No? Oh well.

Matt had a late night of poker last night (but he won $80) so he slept in and cooked us all some oatmeal for breakfast. Come to think of it, ever since GG has been here Matt has been winning at poker. How do we talk her into staying?!?!

After Matt ventured off to work GG and I showered and then headed out ourselves for a fun day of some Macy's shopping. I had a gift card from my brother and sister-in-law that has been burning a hole in my pocket. I found a sporty summery sweat suit and a couple pairs of jean shorts and GG found a couple sweaters and a nice shirt. She's so good at bargain hunting and found some good steals. I, on the other hand, was raised with the knowledge (some might say "belief") that "you get what you pay for" so I tend to not pay close enough attention to the price tag. Sorry Matt.

The kids did fabulous during our shopping trip but were getting hungry so GG offered to treat us to lunch. I had heard of a new little community near the farm where we used to get our produce baskets last year and wanted to check it out. The houses were so cute, extravagant and totally original and the community seemed so homey and inviting. I'm bummed I didn't get any pictures. We found a little bakery offering salads and sandwiches and stopped there for lunch. I had the best Greek Salad I've ever had at the Blue Eyed Daisy Bakeshop. It was so peppery and spicy and like no other. If anyone comes to visit I'm taking you there!! GG had a cobb salad and Lauren had a peanut butter and honey sandwich and Tyler had a grilled cheese sandwich and about 1/3 of Lauren PB&H sandwich. The kids ate so much at lunch that they barely touched their dinner. (Which was Lite Chicken Salad w/ bread and raisins & bananas.)

Back home the kids went down for their nap and I headed to the basement for a General Hospital workout. I LOVE these!! I set the treadmill for some preset workout (today it was P3 which is Speed Interval) and workout during my entire soap opera. My workout ends up being over an hour (and today I burned 700 calories) and I don't really notice how miserable it is because I'm so engrossed in my soap. lol.

After the workout I hosed off in the shower and then made up the Chicken Salad (again from my Everyday Food magazine) for dinner.

After dinner we took a short walk along our street because it looked threateningly like rain and then back at home Matt turned the box of our new patio furniture into a playhouse for the kids. They loved this and shrieked and played and had a good time right up until their bath and finally bedtime.

Now Matt is watching his car shows on TV and GG is waiting for me to finish this post so she can have something to do (read what I just wrote and check her e-mail.) And so the time has come for me to sign off. Enjoy the pics below.

Our new patio furniture...I love it.

Lauren playing in the patio furniture box, peeking through Daddy's custom windows.

And finally we have Tyler just looking plain CRAZY!

glimpse of Savannah thru GG's camera

Here is an example of the typical house in the historical district in Savannah, GA. We saw this and many more during our trolley tour on our first full day there.

We stopped for lunch at this neat little joint. We had our choice to sit in a train car but since the weather was so beautiful we opted to sit outside instead. Here's a great picture of my two favorite boys.

Here's a shot from our day at the beach. Tybee Island was warm, sunny, windy and packed full of Memorial Day vacationers. We found our little spot of paradise in the warm sand and took in the sights. The kids even got their feet wet and their swim suits completely sandy.

Goofing around in the hotel room

GG's dinner at the Pirate's House. DELISH!

Pantless Tyler (he soaked through his diaper and drawers on the way home) running from the elevator into the hotel room.

Good times....Good times.

Summary of Savannah

Hi Y'all. We made the trip home today in record time. We woke up and had such a filling breakfast at B. Matthew's this morning that we made the whole trip home (4 hours; 9 min. according to google maps) without stopping. I don't believe we've ever made such a trip since we've had kids. We had a blast in Savannah. The best part was that GG kept saying that this was the best vacation ever. This was also Matt's first time to enjoy the city. He's been here numerous times on business but has never got to relax and see what the historical city is all about.

Friday evening after dinner we spent some time walking around...as much as GG and her cane "Henry" could handle. We walked along the City Market, peeked into the art galleries, listened to the street music and watched the horse carriages wander along the streets. Lauren and Tyler had fun walking along the ledges of the sidewalk back to the hotel.


On Saturday we took a trolley tour offered by Old Savannah Tours. Although this seems cheesy, it's a good way to learn of all the history associated with the city. And what a deep history this city has. Both Tyler and Lauren took naps during the door but the rest of us were able to learn a great deal. We got off once for lunch and then it was back on until we got off for the final time at River Street. During the tour they talked a lot about the book & movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'

I happened to spot a picture of a movie? or gentleman's club?? production of the Lady Chablis who was in the book/movie...who's no lady at all. =)

After the trolley tour Matt and I took the kids to the hotel swimming pool. They had a lot of fun splashing around. Once Tyler found the hot tub though it was all over. He and I sat in there for probably 20 min. We were in there until we heard thunder. It was good that we packed it up right then because within 30 min. a major thunderstorm poured down over us.

An hour after the thunder storm happened it, just as quickly, went away and out came the cloudless blue skies. (my kind of storm.)

That evening, GG offered to stay with the kids while Matt and I went out on a date and had dinner together. We got GG and the kids pizza from the little pizza joint next to the hotel and then Matt and I ate a super delicous dinner at The Olde Pink House. After we finished eating we took a bicycle tour of the city. By bicycle tour I mean a gentlemen biked us around while we sat in the back seat of his bike. It was a wonderfully warm evening and such a fun ride around the city. After the tour we walked along River Street and enjoyed the sights.

The next day we had breakfast at Clary's and then we headed out to Tybee Island and the beach. It was crowded and windy at the beach but we all had a good time. The kids played in the water and mostly in the sand. Here are a couple pics of the kids on the way back from the beach.

After the beach we headed back to the hotel where Matt and the kids went swimming again, I worked out in the hotel gym and GG got to read some of the new books we bought while touring Savannah the day before.

That evening we went to the Pirate's House for dinner. This was a fabulous meal and according to GG...the best she's ever had. That pretty much made the whole trip worthwhile. The kids were picture perfect there although I didn't take any pictures of that meal. You'll have to ask GG about those pictures.

After dinner GG read books back at the hotel....



And that brings us up to this morning where we woke up, packed up the car and headed out to breakfast and then our record trip home. Back home we unpacked, did laundry and Matt put together our new 7-piece patio table and chairs. I'm sure I'll get pics of it soon.

Currently we have a Lauren emergency that I need to go take care of. Somebody pulled her hair and "nothing is fair". So I'm signing off to make everything better. G'night All.