Life with the Hinds'

We are having a birthday party for Kalee Jo today! We will be in Alabama for her real birthday, so today is the day for her fake birthday. We have been cleaning all week...I have been cleaning all week, the girls have done their best to keep everything out that I just tried to put away! We made Kalee's cake yesterday. She is very excited. It was on the table cooking and she ran up and sat down in her chair and started singing happy birthday, then she blew out the "candles". She did this for about 15 minutes. It was pretty cute. She wanted a Mickey Mouse birthday, so she has a mousy cake and decorations. She tells me that Grandpa, Mandy and Ava are bringing her presents. I guess the others are off the hook and don't need to worry about anything, cuz she only want it from those three!! Peyton has been anxiously awaiting this day all week also. Every morning she wakes up and asks is it Kalee's birthday party day yet? Yesterday, I told her no, it's to...

We had yet another busy weekend. It started with a super wonderful trip to the Pageant in St. Louis to see Ragweed with my favorite brothers and sister in laws. If you want to read all about it, see Goo's blog. There is really no point in typing it all again since I was going to say the same things he already did. The highlights...Carney Man and 3 St. Louis Cardinals waving at our group. The bad part, the stupid Garmin Bitch (Ty's name for her, not mine) who couldn't get us to the concert, and the crappy gay opening band. Oh well, all in all, it was a really fun night! Can't wait til June 19th at the Sangamon County Fair when we'll be seeing them again!! Sunday we went to two birthday parties. Ava's was first. She got lots of good presents, her favorite probably being a dress up clothes chest from A. Stacey (super cool favorite). She immediately put an entire outfit on. She had a crown, dangling 80's earrings, bracelets, shirt, skirt, fairy wings....

Not much is going on today. We played most of the day outside (which is why I don't post as often now. When it's cold, it's easy to sit by the computer, but it's a lot nicer to be outside!!). The girls were back in the swimming pool this afternoon. At least it was some what warm by the time they got back in. It is already filled with grass and starting to look dirty. They don't understand the whole wash your feet off before getting back in concept. Oh well, that's what nets are for. I sat in my chair and worked on my tan a little more! I think that I may actually be pretty tan by the time we leave for Alabama. Hopefully I won't blend in with the white sands! We went to the store this morning. Ava requested a strawberry cake with purple icing and horses. So I got ingredients for that. I told her I like a challenge. She will be getting a strawberry poke cake with horse figurines. There isn't much out there for decorating with horses! Peyton...

Well, now that I feel assured that Ava Marie is going to be just fine, I can get back life as we knew it. You know, the super exciting life of mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, doing laundry and planting the garden. We decided to plant a small garden this year. It is our test run...we will see how it goes and possibly expand next year. I am doing tomatoes (there is nothing in this world like a real tomato!!), green peppers, okra, green beans, peas and radishes. We also got some pumpkins, Peyton was super excited about them, but I just don't know where they will go. Maybe we will ask Pop if he has somewhere he thinks they should go. Peyton thought it was fun to plant the seeds. About an hour after we were done, she asked why there was nothing growing. So it will be fun for her to see how they all come up. We had Adam for two nights. They all had a lot of fun. My funny story on him is that we were playing outside one evening. The girls have a playhouse and next to it is a Rubbermaid ...

AVA IS GOING HOME TODAY!!!! She got another scan this morning and it shows that the swelling is gone in her brain and the clot is starting to go away. Megan says she is being sassy, so she thinks she is feeling much better and is anxious to get home! Thank God!

OK, I am going to write down what happened with Ava (my Niece, Mandy's daughter, who will be 3 Friday). Thursday evening, she was playing at my parents house. They have a deck in the back that goes to the top of the house. Ava was going up the stairs and fell off, landing on her head on the concrete patio. She was knocked unconscious. Mom immediately called 911 and the ambulance came. She was taken to St. John's and they did a scan (I don't remember which kind) and found bleeding and swelling in her brain and a cracked skull, along with a big goose egg all on the right side of her head. They decided she needed to be flown to Peoria Children's Hospital ICU where there was a pediatric neurosurgeon who could take over. She did come around in the ER at St. John's and recognized her mom and dad, but they had to put her back under to tube her and get her on the chopper. She had another scan when she got to Peoria and they said that it appeared there was no more bl...

Well, Helen won...I have to admit I didn't see that coming. Good for her! I was pretty impressed by the old guy too! I am SO happy he beat Ron. And cute Ty was voted off DWTS. I loved him. He was so cute! Oh, what would I do without reality TV? Pathetic.

I have been a horrible blogger recently. I will try to be better! Let's see...We had another busy weekend. Matt is wishing for just one day, just one that we don't have something to do and we can just stay home! Friday the girls and I met Tara Jo and Molly Jo and had lunch at Los Agaves and looked at Peyton's flower girl dress. She was pretty happy with it. I guess it met 2 out of 3 of her main criteria...it was pretty and it twirled well, the only drawback was that it was white. Molly Jo was the cutest thing ever. She had on little khaki pants and a navy blue sweater...Tara said it was her school girl outfit. She was adorable. We all ran (well, Matt and I ran, Matt pushed the girls) the Mrs. Clarke 5K Saturday morning. He left me within the first quarter mile. I ended up finishing in 31:45. I was pretty happy with that. Not my best time, but not my worst! My shins hurt so bad that I am just glad that I finished. The girls, Adam and Ava (and Davis!) all ran th...

Life is getting back to normal around here. I have spent the last two days catching up on all the things I let go for the last week...laundry, grocery shopping, bills, mowing the yard, you know, the fun stuff! I think the funeral luncheon ended up going very smoothly. We had plenty of food...so much that each station (there are 7) got dinner for the night also. So 3rd shift lucked out Tuesday with no cooking responsibilities all day long. The funeral was probably one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. It was amazing. They saved one who side of the church for fire department personnel and they all filed in together and took up the whole side. The procession to the cemetery was amazing. There were probably 15 firetrucks, ambulances, etc from surrounding towns involved in the procession. It is very humbling to see the support that everyone is willing to give to the family. It makes me so proud to be a part of the department. I have a couple funnies. Kate watched Pe...

It's been a busy week or so here for me. The fireman I talked about in my last post passed away. So the Ladies Auxiliary is taking care of all the food for the funeral and visitation. Our president was out of state, so I was sort of in charge until she got back. I went to a few meetings with the Fire Chief and others to discuss the funeral arrangements. Wow, it's amazing, just amazing. There are many rules to follow and things to arrange. I don't know, I can hardly wrap my mind around it because the whole time I am selfishly thinking Thank God this isn't Matt. I told him this and he said "it's not like it matters because you will never have to go through this." I am not allowed to have a funeral for him unless he dies while on duty. He made me promise. Anyway, I spent all afternoon and evening at the church getting ready for the funeral luncheon tomorrow. We are expecting to feed 250 people, so it was a little crazy. Luckily, a lot of people a...