...and Found [sort of]

Well, one of Evan's pairs of sandals turned up at Grandma & Pop-Pop's house. OOPS! Mommy's fault :)

AND, we found one of his fake crocs. Completely random - it was sitting on top of the dryer with a hat and 2 pairs of the kids' sunglasses. Still haven't found its mate, but at least I don't feel quite as crazy as I did earlier in the week. All I have to say is I'm glad I only paid $5 for the imitation crocs :)

Two more things....

1. A late addition to the list of things I HATE LOSING: MY MIND!!!!!!!

2. What is it about Play-Doh that I. keep. finding. bits. and. pieces. all. over. my. house. even though we cleaned it up 4 days ago??????

Lost...

I HATE losing.

I HATE losing games [I'm very competitive :)].

And I HATE losing things. Spent the better part of today searching high and low for not 1, but 2 pairs of Evan's sandals.

He has no idea where he left them. I have no idea where else to look. Talk about frustrating. I've been through the house at least 3 times, searched outside in the yard, asked my neighbor to check her house/garage/etc. to no avail.

How in the world do you LOSE 2 pairs of shoes??? We're talking 4 shoes here, people!?! Not just 1 missing shoe - 4 missing shoes???? I'm beginning to think they sprouted feet and walked away - tee, hee!

Here's to hoping they'll turn up somewhere/somehow and sooner rather than later...

Flip-Flop Album

Here's my take on the flip-flop album. It was my first attempt, so it's a little rough. If I were to do it over, I would make it look a little more polished, but I wanted to include as many pics as I had. Overall, I do like the way it turned out and it was a fun way to incorporate pics from many different events in one place.

OBX Pictures

FINALLY!! :) Had a hard time narrowing down which ones to post, so this might get a little "long-winded" :)

Here's the boys "packed" into the car on the way down. They were SO good. Reading their books, coloring, watching movies. It was an easy 7 hour ride - thank goodness! :)

My Sweetie - we celebrated our 11 year anniversary while we were away. Time sure does fly!

Pop-Pop has the best toys! He brought these knights and a really cool dragon that guarded our sandcastles.

I'm pretty sure Nathan ate every last crumb out of this bag!! LOL!

Nathan & Pop-Pop having fun in the surf.

My nieces...Ava digging in the sand and Abby in her pretty Ariel bathing suit :)

We took Evan mini-golfing - his very first time. He was a trip. He actually was lining up the ball before he hit it. AND he beat mom [not hard to do, btw] but I wasn't even trying to let him win. Gotta work on my game!

Jill & Brian - Jill celebrated her 29th birthday while we were there.

We had a lot of play time in the pool. Here's Nathan & Grandma having fun.

Megan warming up Christopher.

Abby hanging out with her favorite Aunt Kim.

Michael & Dad playing "corn-hole" Don't know if that's the official name, but it's fun. If you couldn't already guess, Michael lives in TN.

Pop-Pop had the magic touch with Alex.

The older kids had fun "driving" the car that Pop-Pop and I sculpted in the sand.

The boys LOVE playing in the water. I couldn't keep them out of it! :)

I L-O-V-E this picture!! Do you KNOW how hard it is to get all 3 smiling AND looking at the camera AND sitting still at the SAME time?????

Michael, Mom & Megan hanging out on the beach. We had beautiful weather.

The kids had a blast paddling the kayak in the surf while Pop-Pop held on tight.

If you made it this far - good for you! Hope I didn't bore you too much! We had a wonderful vacation despite the lack of sleep - terrific weather and good company. It always goes too fast. Two weeks next year, anyone??

Snapshot of a Saturday Morning

I'm vaccuuming up ants in the family room while:

Evan is playing music/Ninja with the vaccuum tools

Nathan is trying to put Ryan's bathing suit on his head and climb on the kitchen table

And Ryan...don't know what Ryan's doing...inevitably making a mess somewhere.

Five for Friday

Well, it's been a little while. Trying to get back into the swing of things ever since vacation, I guess.

1. I am now a proud member of Facebook. It's so exciting!! I got started because a friend invited me to her facebook and yeah, I spent [ahem] 3 + hours this morning trying to navigate my way to finding friends. Started with high school and college, then went to work friends, church friends, friends of friends, former students, you get the picture...it's addictive! :)

2. I actually got some stuff accomplished this week because I have a 'mother's helper' coming Tuesday and Thursday mornings to play with/keep the kids occupied for me. She's great with the kids - too young yet to leave her with all 3, but I figure I'm grooming her to be our regular babysitter when she's old enough - tee, hee!! :)

3. FINALLY! got a little bit of scrapping done last night. Was able to straighten my scrapspace and work on my flip-flop album for my July trend class. I'll post a pic when it's all finished.

4. It has been so stinking hot here this week. Heat wave last weekend into Monday & Tuesday - the kids love being outside as long as they can cool off with the water, so we've been out all week. Need to pick up a new kiddie pool this weekend.

5. Happy Father's Day to my dad, my pop-pop, my father-in-law, and to the best dad in the world - my hubby!! Hope you all have a relaxing day with the ones you love...

Ryan Time

I know, I know....last week I was saying that I needed a little "Non-Ryan Time" in my day. And it was true. He was truly driving me nuts!

And vacation wasn't much different. He was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 5:45 am E-V-E-R-Y S-I-N-G-L-E day....I'm tired just thinking about it.

He has continued this early rising since we've been home - JOY! - but I've managed to convince him to snuggle up in our bed and go back to sleep. This morning, he let me [I say "let" because he's never been much of a cuddlebug] hold him in my arms and we went back to sleep until 7:30. Even though this boy drives me crazy, I love him to death and this time was precious.

Yes, I know our eyes were closed and we weren't interacting. It doesn't matter. I think we both needed that time together - time when Ryan is just Ryan - not Ryan the younger brother or the older brother [a.k.a. Ryan the stinker]. Time when I hope he realizes his mommy loves him higher than the sky and wouldn't trade him for the world.

P.S. I'll post vacation pictures later this week :)