Vacation!

Max says "toot toot - all aboard"

See you in a couple of days!

Around Town with Zach

Today we ran all over getting things done before our little vacation. First we hit Harris Teeter to cash in the coins we collected around the house - 16.74 that we can use on vacation - it was $18 and change before putting it in the Coinstar machine, but they enjoyed doing it themselves and it's faster than having to roll it all. Then it was off to the bank to get a little more change for our trip, and lastly it was the post office, but by then Zach was mad, because he didn't get a sucker at the bank (that's another story) so he didn't want to take any more pictures.

On a side note: We will be gone till Tuesday 7/3 - feel free to call Tim and bug him, he's taking the time to work on his projects and enjoy the quiet - a real vacation! :) No pics till I get back - then look out!!

Dollywood or Bust

We leave for Pigeon Forge on Saturday morning and are planning on hitting Dollywood on Sunday. We've looked everywhere for discount tickets and lo and behold, I found on mycokerewards.com where you can get a ticket for 480 points! Now, I keep a balance of points because a.)I drink way to much Coke b.) because I use the free Blockbuster rentals for rewards at work. Well, I only had 200 and some points when I found the Dollywood ticket about 2 weeks ago. Since then I mentioned it to family and co-workers and this is what I got yesterday thanks to Mom, Dad and Jason! We will definately be getting one ticket free and have points to spare. Thanks guys:)

Little Boy Crazy

This title will be Max's new feature, and when ever he does something that's a little off, we'll fill you in and hopefully there will be a picture to go with it.
That being said:

Max was looking to get dressed this morning and he couldn't find his "little pants" that match his soccer shirt. So, he found his Cubs shorts (ie: little pants) and he was going to wear that with his soccer shirt. I said "go get your Cubs shirt" and I helped him put it on. Which started a whole bunch of new trauma - with "I can't wear this shirt, he's grumpy". "Who's grumpy?" I asked. "The Bear". So we took off the shirt and put on the soccer shirt - the aqua and grey soccer shirt with the blue and red Cubs shorts.....but we're happy :)

Today at Blockbuster!

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Well...........I didn't watch any of them. Slacker BB employee that I am. I've had Black Snake Moan for about 2 months on screener. I had Dead Silence for about 12 days or so. Tim and Jake liked Shooter - good action film, I'm told. Next week it's Animal 2, with Ving Rames (sp?) - I won't be watching that either. Any suggestions as to what to watch with my 5 rents this week - please tell me........

Treasure!

Max and Zach are really into Pirates, so Jake made them a treasure map with clues in random parts of the house, and.....he found a little box he could put treasures in. So they were off and running and they discovered a "chest of treasures."

Sunday.

After church, Fifi and I and the 3 boys ran to Target in Spartanburg. It's about a 40 minute drive, but that Target is a bit better than the one that is 30 minutes away, but not nearly as good as the one that's in Charlotte - about an hour away. Anyway, we left after church and got home a little before 4. Bootie, Poppa, Jake, Zach, Max, Fifi and I all went for a swim while Tim put a pork loin on the grill and the veggies roasted in the oven. Boots went home about 6 to grab Gert(it was too hot to sit outside by us) and we ate about 6:30, and then played Pirates of the Caribbean Life (Max won)before parting ways. The boys were so happy to have Grandma at their house for a change!

Hey!

What? Hay.......... this totally cracked me up. A little history - back in 1995 or so, Kris, Jake and I took a road trip from NJ to IL for a family wedding, and I, at one point yelled out Hay! and Jake said what - and we went round and round, and it became like this thing where you would try to get the other person to say - What? Every time you spotted hay. So we round the corner on our street and our neighbors have been busy all morning with cutting and baling, and Zach yells out Hay! and Max says -What? and it went round and round for a little bit...........

Zach Around Town - Community Garden

Tim and Jake took off for the site early this morning, and the little guys and myself, finally made it over to the garden at 9:30. We worked on clearing the big rocks, and glass, and other goodies from the soil where a run down apartment complex once stood. In the group shot you can see Max helping Jake and Ingrid from church, with a little digging - that shot was taken by Zach. I caught the shots of them relaxing a little for lunch - Free! Pizza Hut pizza. :) You can probably see more shots and get the full story sometime this week in the Shelby Star online, or catch channel 33 news online - they were both out there for this great project.

Lunch!!!!

We headed up to Concord Mills (for those of you in IL it's like Gurnee Mills, for those of you around NJ it's like Franklin Mills - and so on....)Fifi wanted me to go to Garden Ridge which is right across the highway from the Mills mall, and once we were done with the girls stuff, we headed to Dave & Buster's. We had such a good time and Fifi was the queen of the giant crane game, so much so, the boys both came home with huge stuffed toys! As you can see, Max who won the bonus on one ticket machine, was ready to call it a day in the end -

Alive After Five

Tonight we all met up on the square for another concert. This time they played "beach music" and we sat and listened and watch people dance, and the boys ran barefoot in the grass and ate popcorn, and did summer saults (spelling?) and picked up free rulers from the fire department that they used as swords, and.....
our pictures show Logan and Max sharing popcorn, and they show Logan enjoying the popcorn again later, as I tried to make him say popcorn for the picture and his Daddy tried to get him to throw it in the air and catch it in his mouth, and the last odd picture is Kevin trying to show Max how to flip down his leg - interesting, so I thought I'd post it!

Around Town with Zach - #1

Zach said to me about a week ago - take a picture of the fire station - so I said - you take a picture of the fire station - I'm driving! That's when the idea was born - Around Town with Zach. Today's featured picture is our Historic Musuem. It was once the court house and sits in the square in the heart of Uptown Shelby.
(picture taken by Zach)

Dinner!!!!

I was detained at work until after 7, and then, Tim didn't get a chance to get gas for the grill..........so we headed over to Showmars - www.showmars.com for some gyro!

Today at Blockbuster!

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Yes, once again all of the above titles made it home to be watched, and only two made it in the dvd player. I really wanted to see Miss Potter, and although I enjoyed it, I did not love it, nor do I need to see it again, which is a shame, because Ewan McGregor is so easy to look at! Jake watched Reno 911 - he likes the actually calls better than the movie set up - I said how would you describe it and he say "stupid humor". The other 3 never made it to the dvd player. My staff had mixed review for Bridge to Terabithia, and Matt said Big Nothing was exactly that, which is also sad - since I can leave David Schwimmer, but I do enjoy Simon Pegg in one of my favorite movies - Shawn of the Dead. Next week look for Black Snake Moan, and Shooter, as I hope to watch both of those.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads we know - Poppa Ray, Tim(daddy), Uncle Kevin, Uncle Mike, Uncle Scott, Uncle Nate(First Father's Day!), Charlie and Jacob's Daddy - John, Cousin Mike, Cousin Bob, Corey and Maddy's Daddy - Jeff, Brian's Daddy- Shawn(another First Father's Day!), Andrew and William's Daddy- Pastor Jeff, New Daddy - Orlando, and so many others! We hope you did whatever you wanted to today!

In the picture Max is giving his Daddy the card he picked out and(we had to listen to all of the cards in the Hallmark store)he finally decided on one that plays "What a Wonderful World" because it is the "Alkiss song" (Alex from Madagascar- I don't remember I will have to go back and check this sometime - for now- I believe him).

Lunch!!!!!!

Bootie and Poppa have Logan today and we planned on go swimming, and hanging out. However, the weather had other plans and it has become an indoor day. Quick thinking on Bootie's part, they came over anyway and we had a picnic! Complete with fried chicken and grapes - as Bootie put it "the only thing missing are the ants!" (Thank Goodness!)

While We're on the Subject

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I did watch The Tiger and the Snow this week. It came out a few weeks ago and I kept forgetting to grab it. It was finally in last week and I took it home, and I really enjoyed it. It's romantic in a time when romance and poetry doesn't get to much top billing. It's all action and romantic comedies, but this movie shows the lengths that one man would go through for the love of his life. I also put Life is Beautiful up there, because it's the same actors, and if you like The Tiger and the Snow, please, pick up Life is Beautiful as well. Oh, and by the way, you will have to read them..........

This Week at Blockbuster!

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So - once again I only watched one of the many movies that came out this week. That would be Ghost Rider, and that would be, because all of my guys were watching it. It was ok, I didn't like the ending, although I'm not sure why I didn't. I does leave it open for a second one, and the action is pretty fun, Max and Zach watched it more than once, but for them it's up there with Spider-Man, X-Men, and Fantastic 4. Breach - 2 of my employees fell asleep during it. Daddy's Little Girls was enjoyed by one of my employee's mother and daughter, Primeavel - I don't even know if anybody watched that, and Blood and Chocolate made it home with me, but sat on the tv for a week. Tomorrow I get in Miss Potter (which I will make time to see) Gray Matters, Reno 911, Bridge to Teribithia (I'm sure I just spelled that completely wrong) and a few smaller titles - stay tuned for those.

Papa John's Cheese

Every Monday we have pasta for dinner. It's just a no brainer, for the first day of the work week, and Tim usually gets home before I do, so he starts the sauce, and throws the noodles in. Zach likes only meatballs, Tim hates meatballs, Jake, Max and I will eat anything. One thing we all agree on though is Parmesan cheese! Anyway, last week Zach was looking for the Papa John's Cheese. I understood, but it left his father perplexed. Once we explained to Zach the real name, we all had a good little chuckle at the Papa John's Cheese. So tonight, while Tim was instructing the boys to get the food to the table, he said "don't forget the Papa John's Cheese" and Zach just thought he was a little nutty. Anyway..........it sounded like a cute story.

To Panic or Not to Panic???

Let me just say that all of my boys love being in the water. Jake and Zach swam with the family and learned and were very tame. This other one though???????? I don't know about him. I was flippin burgers for the big kids, and the big kids were eating when low and behold I see Max, just happy as a clam, dancing around in the shallow end, and taunting Jake's friends. I am a little concerned that he shows no fear, and I am also very happy that he is feeling comfortable in a place where we spend so much of our summer.

First Party of the Year

Every year, the first pool party of the year belongs to Jake. It's usually the first Sunday after his birthday, but we were running a bit behind, getting things up and running. So we had it today. From left to right is as follows: Jake C., Ty, Amanda, Jake, Betsy, Patrick, Nick and Jason. Missing from the shot- Trey, Austin, Ben, and Travis.

The Amazing Max!

The other day when we got in the pool for the first time, Zach jumped right in and swam under water- Helllllllllooooooo! Last year it took him months to get used to it. Today, Max surprised me with the fact that he is tall enough to walk in the shallow end! He also tried out the diving board, but felt safer from the side. It's going to be a crazy summer with those two!

The Fun!

Max and Zach planned on getting in the pool at 2, and Bootie and Poppa brought Logan over to join in the fun. Daddy and Jake were finishing up house stuff and then they joined us too.