Where is all the water coming from?

I have been so busy this week. Nothing major going on just running errands, doing some shopping, normal stuff to keep me busy.
Today was my first day to just stay home after taking the kids to school. I needed to do some cleaning and get things picked up while the kids were at school.
Everything started off great, just cleaning away....I walked down the hallway once and the floor felt a little wet. I figured someone had forgotten to dry off before getting out of the shower or maybe a wet towel had been on the floor, I didn't think too much of it.
Kept on cleaning, walked down the hall and felt that the floor was really wet, not just damp. Hmmmm. Not wanting to KNOW what was on the carpet, I threw a towel down, stepped all over it and figured my job was done.
A little bit later I walk down the hall again and this time my foot goes, "splish, splosh"! Not a good thing to hear in the middle of your hallway.
I quickly called Jason and he told me to go ahead and pull up the carpet to see what was going on. I pulled back the carpet and found that my carpet was very wet, my padding was soaked and the cement almost had puddles! YIKES!
I got out more towels, wiped everything up and then waited. I needed to see where the water was coming from. Long story short, I now have a plumber coming to my house tomorrow. I have to keep the water turned off (with 4 kids in the house...haha!). I have to take everything out of the bathroom cabinet and have it ready to be pulled out by 8:30am tomorrow.
I have a hair appointment at 11am tomorrow so I am just going ot have to trust the plumber to do his job and leave him in the house. You don't understand, my stylist books up 6-8 weeks in advance. I can't just call and re-schedule! It would not be very good for my roots!
I am tired and I haven't even started empyting the bathroom cabinet!
Pray everything goes smoothly and that he can find the leak and get it taken care of. Pray that the homeowners insurance guy comes quickly and will pay for the damaged carpet, damaged linolium, and wood flooring!

It Works!

Nicholas has been having a little bit of trouble adjusting to being back in Public School. The days are long, the work is hard and most importantly, he misses his mama! Yesterday he got in a little tiff with one of the other students and had to miss recess as punishment. He did not want to go to school today and was so sad about everything that had happened yesterday at school.
I told him that he would have a great day and that he needs to remember that even though mommy is not there with him, God is. I reminded him that he has Jesus in his heart so if he wants to, he can pray to Jesus right there at school, even with his eyes open. I honestly was not sure he was even listening to me until I picked him up from school this afternoon.

ME: Hey! How was your day?
Nicholas: It works!
Me: What works?
Nicholas: What you told me about this morning
Me: Which thing that I told you about this morning?
Nicholas: The praying to Jesus.....I prayed today that I would not cry in school today and that I would be a good boy all day long and it worked!
Me: Of course it worked, I am so proud of you!

Ahhhh, the prayers of a child! He is such a good kid and now I just need to remember, that even though mommy is not there with him all day long, Jesus is!

Thawing Tips 101

I shared a tip with one of my friends the other day and she in turn has shared it with many of her friends so now I am thinking I should share it with all of you!

How many times do you come home, haven't thought too much about dinner, need to make something but all your meat is frozen? Taking chicken or ground beef out of the freezer and putting into the microwave on defrost just gets to be a mess. Thawed chicken juice gets all over the plate and sometimes the microwave. Ground beef never thaws evenly and then you have part cold, part frozen, part cooked meat! Ewwwww! Well, with Bekah's new quick thawing tip, microwave mess will be a thing of the past! Simply place any frozen meat or sauce into a resealable ziploc bag. Fill your sink with warm water, place the bag into the sink and let it thaw. No mess in the microwave and all juices are contained inside the ziploc bag! This works well with any type of frozen meat and I use it to thaw left over sauces as well. So next time you need to thaw meat or sauce, forget about the microwave and remember Bekah's quick thawing tip! :-)

Back to School

So today starts the kids first day back to school! WOW!

Stephanie is in 8th grade now, Ethan is in 5th, Nicholas is in 2nd, and baby Lexi is not a baby anymore and in the 1rst grade! After a year of homeschooling we decided to put the kids back into public school. Lexi and Nicholas had already been pushing to go back since about February of this year. Ethan didn't seem to care one way or the other. Even though home schooling last year was not that bad, with Jason working out of town it was just too much for me! I think it will be good to have the kids back in school and give all of us a little time away.

Today was really hard for me to send the kids to school. I was excited for them, I think they all have great teachers, but I was not ready to say goodbye to summer and send them off to school again. A lot of my friends think I am crazy for missing them or wanting the summer to be longer....but I can't help it. I was thinking about it today and realized that a lot of my parenting ideologies were learned back in the small town of Siloam Springs. I was reading a blog from one my "Siloam Friends" talking about how sad she was for the families who can't wait to be apart from each other and back in school again. I know that she put a lot more eloquently than I am and I am not trying to bash anyone here....I was just thinking that I agree with her 100%! My children are still so small (even though my 11 year old would not kiss or hug me goodbye today) and having them in school all day long with the influence of some other person....I really sort of hate it! I know how great my kids are and how smart they are, I just pray the teacher will see those same qualities and help them reach beyond themselves to achieve more than they thought they could! You know? No one believes me when I say I miss the kids already but I really do. I am already looking forward to 2:30 when I can go pick up the younger three from school and hear all about their day!

I have gotten a lot done today and I will admit that it is nice to mop the floor and not have little footprints making it dirty again as soon as I turn around....but then again, I know that those days are quickly slipping away and it makes me sad! They are growing up so fast and having them back in school again after having them home for a year...it makes me want to scoop them back in closer and just have them home a little while longer!

This post is almost sounding depressing and I don't mean for it to be! I know that they will have a good year and God has a plan for them this year in school and I know they will be fine! Of course I had to take multiple pictures this morning before they headed off to school. Stephie went to school with her friend this morning so I did not get any pictures of her all ready to go but I still managed to snap a couple bathroom shots (since this is where she spends more and more of her time anyway) The primping of a teenager!

So enjoy the pictures and hopefully I will do better at updating my blog now that I have so much FREE time with all 4 kids back in school! :-)

Happy Birthday Ethan

11 years ago a new person entered our world and I am lucky enough to be called his mom! For 11 years I have watched him grow and blossom into the boy I love today. At 11 he is still a boy and yet at times I see glimpses of the man he is becoming!
When we went back to Chicago I remembered that when Ethan was only 2 years old I had taken his picture at the Brookfield Zoo and it has become one of my favorites. So, while we were at the zoo this time, I decided to replicate the picture again, 9 years later. I thought I had remembered the pose correctly but I had him facing the wrong way. Oh well!
In honor of Ethan's birthday I wanted to share these pictures on here with all of you! Look at how my little man is growing!
Happy Birthday Ethan! I LOVE YOU!!

Chicago

Well we have been busy, busy, busy! Summer is going by waaaaay too fast! For our big trip this summer we made the trek back to Chicago! After being away for over 3 years I think it was a little bit past time! We started off by going to Greenville first to pick up daddy and to help break the trip up a little bit. Only 3.5 hours to Greenville and the kids have gotten used to that trip.

The next morning we climbed into the Suburban for the long haul, Greenville to Chicago! It was a beautiful drive, going through the hills and the mountains, you forget how pretty a bunch of trees can really be!

Once in Chicago we split the trip up and spent 2 days with Jason's family and then 2 days with my family. It was the PERFECT amount of time! While with Jason's family we spent one day with his older sister, Susan, where we took the kids to the pool...even though it was freezing outside! (okay, so it was 80 degrees but after GA weather....it was cold!) hehehe! :-)
The next day we took the kids to Brookfield Zoo and packed as much into one day as we possibly could!

Sunday with my family was an all out cookout. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and great grandma all came out to my parents house to spend the day with us. It was a great day of just hanging out and a chance for us to relax. The next day we took the kids downtown and to The Museum Of Science And Industry. It was a lot to pack into one day but it was so much fun. After the museum we went back to Kim's house and hung out while eating Giordano's pizza! YUM!
We went ahead and left Chicago on Monday night and drove to a hotel in IN just to help break up the trip again. Back to Greenville the following morning where we stayed until the weekend and daddy could come back home to Savannah with us!

It was a great trip all the way around! The kids were real troopers and it just seemed like the perfect amount of time! So, here are a view pictures and highlights from our Chicago trip....ENJOY! :-)

P.S. I Love You

Last week I spent the whole week with Jason and the younger three kids in Greenville. We came back on Saturday and spent the weekend as a family until Monday. Monday morning Jason went back to Greenville and Stephie headed off to camp. I have to admit, I was a bit depressed on Monday. After spending all week with Jason it hurt to have to say goodbye, and after being apart from Stephie for the week I wasn't ready to say goodbye again!
I decided it was time to treat myself! What better way to cheer up a depressed spirit than to go out and rent some chick flicks! Knowing Jason would not be around in the evenings and there is hardly a good thing on TV these days...I rented 3 new movies. The three movies were as follows: Definitely Maybe, P.S. I Love You, and Fools Gold.
Tuesday night I watched Definitely Maybe. The movie was okay. Nothing great, nothing really bad, just a movie and I guess escape from reality. Sort of disappointing but at least I didn't pay to see it in the theater.
Wednesday night I watched P.S. I Love You! Wow! I totally LOVED this movie! I cried and cried and laughed and just got wrapped up in this great love story! Not near as sad as The Notebook but still a great movie. If Jason will endure it I might just make him watch it once he gets home this weekend!
Thursday night will be Fools Gold but Jason will be home to watch that one with me, yay! I think there will be enough action in it and maybe a little love to keep us both entertained.
Anyway, I just wanted to let all you hopeless romantics (like me) know that P.S I Love You is a Great movie! Go out and rent it and then bring some Kleenex and be prepared to cry!
What is it about me that makes me love a movie that makes me cry? When I was younger my all time favorite movie (and still is to this day) was/is Dead Poets Society. I used to watch that movie and cry every single time. When those boys stood on their desks at the end and said, "Oh captain, my captain!" Ohhh, tears every time. My older sister used to torture me and sit with the remote on rewind just to hear them say, "Oh captain, my captain" and watch the tears continue! Inspirational! Ahhhh!
Now I sit at home all alone and watch the movies that make those tears come again. And what makes me like them so much? I think it must be therapeutic or something! I don't know! What I do know is that it felt good to be swept away, sucked into another time, another love story and cry for the hurts of other people! It made me wish so badly that my Jason was home and sitting on the couch with me to kiss away the tears once the movie was over! Ahhhh, love it is a beautiful thing! With all it's raw honesty, hurts, laughs, and comforts. It's what every girl dreams about from the time she is 4!
It was a great evening! Me, my glass of wine, and 2 hours worth of crying while I watched a movie! What more could a girl ask for? Besides knowing that my hubby is coming home in less than 24 hours! Yay!
But really, go rent that movie!
I loved it so much I had to blog about it! :-)