Back to the books!

Today is our first day back to 'school' here.  We've started early this year so that we can take more time off when it finally gets a bit cooler (though I'm sure that won't happen until January down here!).  So far the day is going wonderfully!  I'm doing a modified version of workboxes with the girls (y'all will just have to Google that one) and they're really enjoying it.  Right now we're on lunch break (leftovers are heating up in the oven!) and we'll finish the rest when we're done. 

Mary seems to be having a great time in college so far, though she did say that she misses real food.  ;)  Hopefully we'll get to see her soon.  Between school and work, I'm not sure when we'll see her!  I miss her; things aren't the same around here without her here.

Sunday I ran 6 miles!  That was crazy fun and utterly exhausting.  This morning my legs only let me run 2, though they protested loudly the whole time.  :) 

On Sunday (thanks to Alex's sister Michele who is coming to watch the girls) I get to go hang out at Animal Kingdom all day with my husband!  OMG.  If y'all only knew how excited I am about this.  I would have picked the Magic Kingdom (and who knows, I might still change my mind) but my favorite ride is being refurbished there, and it wouldn't be the same without it.  Plus I'd want to stay until they closed, and they close too late for us to get back in time.  Hmmm.....though if we can talk Michele into spending another night..............who knows.  :)  All I know is I'm going to Disney on Sunday with my husband and it doesn't matter where I go!  Now just hope it doesn't rain on us.

I am off to check on lunch, but I bet it still has a while to go. 

After 18 years, I was still horribly unprepared for this.

My baby is off at college now. I can't believe it! Here's a few pictures I took over the past few days:


Packing up the van on Friday.


Being a nut.


Hannah and Kali playing in their room. :)

In the dorm room! Her roommate wasn't there yesterday; she should be there now.


More of the room. Her bed is fairly high off the ground, so there was plenty of room to store stuff underneath it. Kali said she was going to sleep under there.







Hanging out in the bathroom. :)


Don't we all look like a lovely bunch? Oh lord.


Yes, you read it right - there's housekeeping. I want that!


View out of her window; please excuse the screen.




Going back to the van.


The campus is so pretty. Hopefully I'll be back over there soon visiting Mary. That is, if she'll let me in!


The girls HAD to sleep in her room last night. Well, Hannah fell asleep in there, but Kali didn't. She couldn't fall asleep and ended up sleeping in our bed. She said "mom, where do you think Mary's sleeping tonight? Do you think she's in her dorm room now in bed?" Oh my. Just about broke my heart.

I will tell you that leaving Mary at UCF was ugly for me. I was totally unprepared for how awful I felt. Really, I felt like I up and left her there. She thought that was kinda funny. The energy in the house has totally changed and I'm trying to get used to it. The girls have been playing in her room most of the day after we gave it a good cleaning. :) Hannah has already taken over the closet, too.

She ended up having to work today at Penny's. According to her, it was hell. I bet she'll sleep well tonight! Classes start tomorrow for her. She is going to be one busy girl. Hopefully she'll find a few moments to squeeze the rest of us in. :)

I still can't believe she's there, though. It's so odd. I had 18 years to prepare myself for this, and I was not. I know she's going to be just fine out there, but it doesn't make her leaving here any easier. I miss you, Mary, and I love you.

Our week with Grandma and Grandpa

We had a blast while Grandma and Grandpa were here.  Why does that week always fly by in warp speed?!  I keep trying to convince them to take 2 weeks, but so far, no luck!  Hmmmm........should I take that personally?!  ;)  Just kidding.  I have a TON of pictures, and while I won't put them all up here, here are some of the best ones.

Ahhh....before I get to those pictures, let me just say one thing.....It's freakin' hot!  It was 82 this morning at 5:30 when I went out for a run.  The humidity was through the roof.  It really is awful outside and my run was just as horrid.  It should 'cool off' by the end of the week.  This means that it should be 77 in the morning and not 82.  Hopefully that will help.

Okay, on to the pictures......


See what Grandma does when she comes to visit us?  We must be boring people.  ;)


The girls wanted to play a game of Old Maid with them.  Alex lost. 


Grandpa is hoping that changing the color of the bird house will finally get some birds in there.  I'm not sure they really wanted to live in a hot pink house.  The house is now black and beige; it's as close to UCF's black and gold as we'd get.


I just want to eat her!


Trying to spray the house. 


Hey, look!  A new flower basket.  Don't worry, mom, they are getting enough water.


Playing a game of Yahtzee with Grandma.  I think Hannah lost this one.


But she won the bowling game.  A few times.  :) 


Grandma's running away with my basket.  Come back!!!!  Actually, there were some yummy shrimp grilled in there that night.  I looooooove shrimp.




On Tuesday they took Mary out shopping for a fridge for her dorm room, so I decided to roll out some pasta.  I made some turkey italian sausage, too, and then made some sauce.  I made some herb garlic bread, but we had a slight technical difficulty!  As I was preheating the oven to put the bread in, I saw a flash, heard a pop, and then I ran and turned off the oven.  Turns out that my element bit the dust for the 2nd time (does this mean I cook too much?!).  We have since found out that you can bake some yummy bread on the grill!  Disaster averted.  :)  The element has been replaced and hopefully it won't go out again.


Seriously, have you seen a cuter child?!?!?  She's so darn funny, too.


Painting with Grandpa!  Hannah did a great job on the roof.  The bird house is now hanging in the back yard; hopefully we'll have some residents soon.

Speaking of the back yard, Alex finally was able to get rid of the bees.  We had a huge bee hive in the wall in our yard.  There was about a 1/4" space in between two parts of the wall (we have a subdivision behind us and their wall is in our yard) and the bees decided it would be a great place to live.  NOT.  They are not there anymore.  Yeah!


Sitting outside of Cracker Barrel.  We stopped there for breakfast on our way to UCF. 


After we got done at UCF, we went over to Downtown Disney and had dinner at T-Rex.  The little ones love it there.  Kali is a dinosaur FREAK!


Mary and Hannah playing Tic-Tac-Toe


Watch out for Tyrannosaurus Grandma!!!!!  She'll eat you alive.


We went to the beach for lunch one day (well, two days, but here's one of them).  Although it was hotter than hell, the breeze and shade were perfect for sitting outside for lunch.  I need to go back there soon.


Hi Grandpa!!!


Cooling off at lunch.


I bet you wish you were here, too!


I could have sat on this swing for hours.






We went to Wiregrass Mall and the girls got some puppets.  They were having a blast with them when they got home. 




Back at the beach for lunch!  I had the girls do this for Alex.  Now he has a cute picture of them to hang in his office. 


Hey Mary!!  FISH HEAD!!!!


It finally cooled off enough for the girls to ride their bikes.  Seriously, people, it was Africa-flippin-hot out all week.  Today it's worse.


Watch out for speeding Peetie!


And he THOUGHT he was on vacation! 


I think he wanted to ride it all the way home.


Planting flowers with Grandma.


Did I mention that I want to eat her up?


Hannah's turn!


She's not exactly fond of the dirt.  ;)


Happy Father's Day!!!


We fed the men well that morning.  I only make my cinnamon rolls for birthdays or holidays.  I figured this one had to count!


Playing one last game before we had to leave for the airport.  :(

As always, the week went by way too fast.  Dang it.  And at the end of this week, Mary's leaving for Orlando and UCF.  This is not right!  Sure, Hannah and Kali are still here keeping me busy.  Then there's that whole "I'm responsible for their education" thing; that keeps me hoppin'.  But my Mary is leaving.  She makes me crazy, drives me insane, irritates the heck out of me, and I'm going to miss her beyond words.  Do you think it would be okay to pitch a tent outside her dorm room?  Someone pass the Kleenex - or a sweatband.

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day everyone!!!!

Now for a quick update with a promise of lots of pictures coming in the near future.  This is my huge public (well, as public as this blog is) thank you to my parents for a fabulous week!  THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!  It was more stress reducing, relaxing, and indulging than you will ever know.  We were all thoroughly spoiled, and had a blast.  We hope you both had a great time, too.  :) 

However, Grandma, I do think I need to go get a sweatband now!  ;)  (inside joke)

Thank you, again, for a great week.  The fact that I have to cook tonight is going to be painful.  Hmmmm...what was the number for the chinese place?!?!?

Hopefully Grandpa will come down soooooooooooon with projects for the girls. 

Love you both.  :)

Orlando.

Mary had a job interview in Orlando yesterday, and asked me to ride along with her.  While we were driving, another place out there called her and asked her to come in, too!  Gee, my girl is popular.  :)  We switched off driving so she could call them back; they asked her to stop by that afternoon also.

I dropped her off at the college and headed off to Starbucks.  It was about 92 in the shade yesterday.  Someone tell me why I thought a hot cup of coffee was a good idea at the time?!  Mary's first interview was at a restaurant at the college.  Of course, they loved her and will be calling her by Friday.  We then headed over to the mall, and JCPenny's, where her next interview was.  You can't just transfer your job there, you have to go interview.  Plus, she was originally told by her boss that there were no available positions out at that store.  We gently told her not to believe the majority of stuff your told; people are just too dang lazy to do their jobs right and you have to find out for yourself.

Guess what?

My girl has a job at Penny's now, and maybe even a job at the restaurant!! GO MARY!!!!!!!

I had fun hanging out with her for the afternoon.  We stopped off at Tijuana Flats for dinner and then headed back home.  My baby will be moving out in 16 days.  :(  And, once again, while I am THRILLED for her, I am sad for me.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Someone hold me. 

I'm so glad she was able to get a job.  This will hopefully make things a whole lot easier for her.  Now she can pay her car insurance, her cell phone (well, we only have her pay for her unlimited texting and phone insurance, we pay the actual phone bill) and she can eat.  ;)