Back to Real Life

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 storage thing that we keep outside toys in. Adam and Peyton opened it up and were playing in it. I was sitting in a chair on the other side of the play house reading. All the sudden, I hear Adam say "Hey!! Come look, there's a snake in here!!" Well, if you know me at all, you know that snakes are my number one fear. I HATE THEM!! So you can be sure that I jumped up and immediately ran inside. I lost all motherly instinct. I just had to get out of that yard. So I am screaming into the garage yelling "come on kids, let's get inside!!" Meanwhile Peyton is saying to Adam, "show me! I want to see it!!" I am screaming "NO!!! Just come inside!!!" Kalee is standing there looking at me like I have completely lost it. Oh well. Of course, Matt was at the firehouse, the place he will forever be when something goes wrong. I know, you are thinking, Nothing went wrong, Shelly, it was just a snake....WRONG!! Snake=Major Problem in my book!! So Matt never answered his phone even though I called him 4 times and left him messages that I needed him to come home and take care of the problem. Also, none of my brother's-in-laws came to my rescue. Pop is my only knight in shining armor...he offered to come even though he was at home and it was almost 8PM and he had already driven to Peoria and back that day. Pop, you are my hero. I told him no, by that point I had calmed down and had no plans to ever leave the house again. So Matt comes home the next morning and immediately goes to check out the issue. He comes inside laughing at me. Adam's "Snake" was a night crawler. Oh well, I don't care. I hate those things too. Adam just proved what I have always said. Worms are just little snakes. And they are all nasty!! The even funnier thing is that I finally asked Adam how big the snake was that he saw (I was not thoroughly convinced that it hadn't just slithered away...nasty thing!), he held up his fingers and put them about an inch apart. Jeez.

We cleaned out the swimming pool today and filled it with water. It was FREEZING, but the girls wanted in and probably stayed in it for at least an hour. They had a blast. I am sure after the first 5 minutes, they were numb, so they were able to stay in longer!

They are going to have so much fun on the beach in Alabama! I can't wait to go. We leave in two weeks. Kevin and Debbie are taking the family on vacation again this year. They rented us a beach house in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I am so excited!!

The girls have also been rocking out with their tinker toy microphones and guitars. They love when Matt builds them stuff! This is by far one of Peyton's favorite things to do with Daddy.