Work, Work, Work and Small Blessings

Well, we have still been working away with my Dad. We are so close yet so far away from finishing the remodel. As you can see from the pics the girls have still been helping lots!

Today when we got to Papa Charlie's house, Brylie walked in the door and Papa Charlie's dog attacked her. It was so scary! In the blink of an eye the dog threw her to the ground, pinned her down, and bit her on the cheek. Thank God that my Dad and Papa Charlie were standing right there and were able to get it off of her. It really could have been so much worse! I felt so bad for her listening to her terrifying wails while they were pulling him off. It was like there was nothing I could do to help her. I am just so very grateful that she only has a small bite on her cheek. I can't even imagine what would have happened if no one had been around.

Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's off to work we go....

The girls and I have spent the last couple of days working with Grandpa again. This time we are helping him remodel a mobile home to get it ready for renters to move in. It is one DIRTY job. We have had to wash the entire place with Pinesole from top to bottom. (Literally the floor, walls, and ceiling). Then today we started to paint every inch of ceiling and tomorrow we are going to paint all the walls. In between all that we have also cleaned ceiling fans, a disgusting refrigerator, moved out old abandoned furniture, and worked on the plumbing. It is so exhausting! The girls LOVE to help though! I'm not real sure how much work Grandpa is actually getting done, but hey I've come quite a ways lol. By the time I bring them home they are black from head to toe with dirt. They are also majorly tired and ready for bed nearly as soon as they get home, bathe, and eat dinner. I'm of course equally exhausted. I hate to admit it, but I really don't think I have ever worked this hard in my entire life! My knee has be so swollen I can't even really bend it, and my hip is going out on me again. I don't know if you have ever had to paint a ceiling before but talk about a CRICK IN THE NECK. I have to constantly look up. I even have a big bruise on my upper leg from where the paint pole was constantly hitting me there with every stroke. I'm also quite certain my arms are going to fall off if I have to hold them in the air anymore. From painting ceilings, to cleaning ceiling fans and removing the blades, to having to remove and carry all the doors in the house, my arms have QUIT! Oh well, I guess I will quit making you feel sorry for me...you do feel sorry for me, right? I hope you enjoy the pictures of my adorable princesses turned into filthy little workers!

Vacation to Lumberton

We had a great time visiting friends and family in Lumberton over the last week. We stayed busy the entire trip and were able to cross off all of Mitchell's "want to dos" while we were there.

Day 1

We arrived at Papa and Lola's around 10:30 Thursday night so our first real day there was Friday. So we spent most of Friday hanging around the house. Mitchell and Papa went to the lumber store to get everything they needed to build the girl's uneven bars and then began working on them as soon as they got back. Brylie was so excited that Papa and Lola were babysitting a little girl named Kasey for a few days so she had a new friend to play with. They played so well together! After the guys finished the bars we spent the remainder of the night in the backyard. Once the girls went to bed we went over to Jory's house and had a fun night playing the Monopoly Card game and Taboo.






Day 2

Saturday was beach day. Our niece Jessye came over first thing in the morning so the girls could hardly contain their excitement and woke us up pretty early. We had a lot of friends at the beach and lots of little girls! It was Papa, Lola, Mitchell, me, and the girls, Jory and his little boy Ashur, Jared and his little girl Kylee and girlfriend Toni, and then we had Kacey and Jessye with us as well. It wasn’t the best day to go to the beach with the weather but we had fun anyways. It was just an overcast and VERY windy. The waves were HUGE. I was so nervous that the waves would carry the girls out to sea. You notice Brylie is the only one wearing a lifejacket if that tells you how paranoid I was. She has absolutely NO fear of the water or the big waves. She would keep getting further away from shore until I would have to call her to make her come back. She would even lay down and let the big waves go right over her head. She was definitely the brave one of the bunch. Katy did a lot better than last year when she wouldn’t even let me set her down but she still didn’t want to have much to do with the water. Since the waves were so big it made the water look foamy on the shore. Katy kept telling us it was a big bubble bath. She had fun digging in the sand and flying the kite with Lola. That night we all went back to Jory’s for another game night. This time it was our favorite…Cranium.













Day 3

Sunday was spent relaxing around the house. We went to eat lunch at Lola’s work and got to see the Mama and Daddy ducks where Daisy came from. By the way I forgot to mention that Lola brought a baby duck home from work just before we came for our visit. Her name is Dumb Dumb Daisy Duck and the girls absolutely LOVE her, especially Katy. After lunch we went back to the house for a nap while all the guys went to the driving range. Once they got back we all hung around outside again. The girls played with Daisy duck and helped Lola pick snap peas out of the garden. That night Jory, Elena, Jared, Toni, and Lucas came over for a yummy steak dinner and game of poker. Of course none of the girls played (except Lola) and the game seemed to go on FOREVER. But the guys had a really good time.








Day 4

Monday we knew was going to be our last full day and our last night in Lumberton so we decided to have a big crawfish boil. We drove to Beaumont to get the crawfish. When we were on our way back I told Brylie to sit real still so the crawfish wouldn’t get out and crawl on her. A few minutes later I ran my fingers over her head without her knowing it was me. She leapt clear out of her buckled car seat nearly into the front seat and screamed bloody murder. She cried for about 15 minutes afterwards. If we had had a video camera we would of won Funniest Home Videos for sure. It was beyond hilarious! Our crawfish boil was a lot of fun! We even set up the swimming pool and slip ‘n’ slide for the girls. Daisy Duck got to go for a swim in the big pool with the girls too. Mitchell had more fun on the slip ‘n’ slide then the girls did. Katy actually really loved eating the crawfish. She didn’t even mind that they were SUPER spicy. She is her Daddy’s girl that’s for sure! After we were all crawfished out and the girls were on their way to bed we all went over to Jory’s for one more game night of Cranium.
















Day 5

Tuesday came way too quickly but it was time to start packing and getting ready to head home. We decided we would wait until much later in the afternoon so that the girls would hopefully sleep for the majority of the car ride home. We made a detour to Newton to go to Mitchell’s grandmother’s house to pick out some furniture and other things that we wanted. We got all kinds of really neat treasures! We got the family Bible, a painting of a barn that his grandmother had painted, another painting of The Last Supper, a neat jewelry box, text books dating back to the 1920’s, a letter written in 1917, some pictures, china, some pitchers, old handkerchiefs, and even the bonnet Mitchell’s grandmother always wore. We didn’t have any room in the car of course for furniture so we are going back in a couple of weeks. I love old antiques and things that carry lots of memories! After our stop at Newton we were homebound. We made it home about 9:30 that night. It was nice to be back home in our own beds with all of our animals, but at the same time we would have loved to have been able to stay in Lumberton longer.