HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY ADDISON!

Addison celebrated her 6th, but FIRST, birthday party with friends this year :) It seems like every year we just do a simple family celebration....but not this year! We celebrated at Pump It Up and the kids had a BLAST! It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it to see how much fun the kids had!

I can't believe Addison is actually 6 now.......time flies, but I have to admit that I love the kids being "grown" and responsible. Parenting, on the other hand.........well, that gets harder and

harder......

the best deal EVER

During my 45 minute commute to/from work each day I kind of put myself on auto pilot - a lot. Well, one day I noticed this boat sitting in the parking lot of the credit union across from the Navy base. I didn't think too much of it, really - that is, until my friend proposed that I find out what the deal is with the (awesome) party boat. Turns out a girl I work with knows a girl who works at the credit union (we all know each other from the spouses group....but that's too confusing to try and link all of us together - I'm trying to keep it simple ;) and she calls to ask her what the deal is on the boat. Come to find out, it's a REPO - a 2007 boat, trailer, and motor - the asking price: $11,840 Negotiable. Oh, I'm ALL about negotiations and getting things for a steal!





(By the way....Jim and I had been talking about getting a bigger boat for several months now and have been keeping out eyes peeled for good deals)





To make a long story short......I fought off two other people, raced my butt into the credit union (during work), and filled out the loan papers for WAY BELOW market value! And, I got a FABULOUS rate to boot!!











Jim knew nothing about my purchase - we put an offer in on the boat but was outbid initially - that was the last he knew of the situation. I think he was pretty happy to see her sitting in front of our house when he got home from work!

Check her out!!

This was my attempt to show the F22's flying all around us (it's like this everyday - we love it!)

Tyler took this shot from the boat -- at first this dolphin was slapping his tail on the surface of the water....we pulled up near where we saw him, turned off the engine, and the next thing you know, this is what we see!

WARNING WARNING WARNING

We had our first Tornado Warning a couple of months ago (I've been meaning to post this for a while, but.......). We had the kids pile up into the bathroom, which was not my #1 choice of rooms to seek shelter, but it's the only room in the center of the home. The kids thought it was necessary to bring their entire bedding sets in with them to keep them comfy (or so I figured).
















I tried to show where we are in reference to the storm........























The downspout was like this for hours........

news....news.....news....

Where to being? Where I left off, I suppose......

So I ended up going back to Michigan for my great grandmother's funeral. I felt like I made peace with her passing the day I found about it, but knew I needed to be home. I have to say...I DON'T miss the cold....brrrrrr!

Here I am with Mary (my dad's gf, and my brother and sister)

-- we saw Fool's Gold at Studio 28 (wow....brings back memories!)

Julia and I making a "funny face"

NEWSFLASH

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Rest in Peace, Grandma

My great grandmother, Lida Johnson, passed away early this morning in her sleep at the age of 100. Grandma was going to be 101 in June, only one week earlier than my own birthday. I love my great grandmother very much and it was very hard to get the call today with the bad news. I want so badly to go home to say goodbye, but I know in my heart that I would only be saying goodbye to her body and not to her soul, which will live on.



I have plans to be home for my sister's graduation in May. I was going to see grandma, too, when I was home.



My grandma was a "Peach of a Gal" and she will be missed terribly. She lived independently until the age of 97 or 98 (I can't remember which). I can still remember going over to her house to help her with her yard (well, Jim would help her with her yard...her and I would sit inside and talk :) She tried to give Jim $30 for raking her leaves! After realizing that we were NOT going to take the money from her, she settled for giving us some bags of candy. This was another thing she was known for...always having candy in the house (and she still has all of her own teeth....something to be proud of at 100). And because she lived right behind Koozie's Nut House (remember Koozie's???) she would always have nuts in the house. Any how, she settled on letting us go with just a couple bags of candy.



I will miss my great grandmother terribly. She is such a great person and such a strong Christian woman. Which reminds me now of all of the Mother Daughter banquets I would "have" to go to. But she was so proud of me as her first great grand-daughter and I would always go, for her so she could brag about me to her friends at church. She was such a proud grandma, much like a grandma always is :)




Grandma, Rest In Peace and know how much you are loved and how much you will be missed.

These pictures were taken in 2006 while we were home on our visit - grandma was 99.

quitter

Such a nasty sounding title, huh? I feel the need to vent, so feel free to just skip right on by this stuff if you'd like....I won't know, right! ;)
So I found out that the position that I wanted so badly would be less than $3 more per hour in pay...not enough for me to go back full time. Of course it would be a little extra money, but only a little after I pay for after-school care. And this also means less time with the kids. Not that the kids want to spend time with me right now anyhow - lol. Addison is still into playing with me, but when there's neighbors to play with, they would much rather be hanging out with their friends than me. But at least I know where they are and who they are with. So no more choices to make. Although, I did stick to dropping out of college for the time being. I really need the break from that. Now I get to start paying back those student loans - yippee.
Well, thanks for 'listening' if you stuck around to read this. My adreneline is still going from a busy day at work - everything was "rush, rush, rush." So I'm going to try to be productive around the house.....