Happy 4th From Us to You!

For 3 years now, we have traveled to St. Mary's, GA for their parade. We love it! St. Mary's is typical small town America. Their parade consists of old tractors and cars. Police cars, trucks, and tanks. Firetrucks. Radio stations. Tae Kwon Do academies. Day cares. Music Studios. Knights of Columbus. Boy Scouts. There are no marching bands or anything else that would make you think typical parade. We love it. The neighbors drive their golf carts to Osteola Drive. Moms walk their babies in strollers. It makes me think of 1950's America!

After the parade, we returned home for necessary naps for all since we would not only be up VERY late, a certain unnamed 9 year old slept for a whopping 4 hrs the night before keeping said child's mother up. Once said child fell asleep, a certain 7 year old woke 1 hour and 33 minutes later followed by a certain 5 year old 25 minutes later. These unnamed children only allowed their mother to sleep from 4-5:33am - she was a tad cranky!

  After naps, we prepared to go see the Jacksonville Suns play the Chattanooga Lookouts! The final score was 3-0, Suns. So, it was a bit of a boring game! However, Daddy did catch a ball for the kiddos. Also, Grandma was able to join us! Father David was supposed to come, but there was an emergency at our parish, so he was unable.

After the game, Winn Dixie sponsored a huge fireworks show. Normally on Friday nights they will have fireworks, but this was about double what is normally done. The kiddos loved every single second!

After the game, Grandma, Daddy, and I grabbed a kiddo and headed to the van. We parked in the garage across from the field and arrived to our van at 10:30. We were finally exiting the garage at 11:05. Once out of the garage, all we saw were brake lights in all directions. There are only a handful of ways out of downtown Jacksonville and every single one was backed up. We had to go over the Matthew's Bridge and we could see that things were not moving at all. Finally, at 11:40 we were over the Matthew's bridge and headed towards Grandma's house. We dropped her off and were home shortly after midnight....

The kiddos were still on cloud nine from everything, but after a little night time routine aided and snuggles, all were out by 1am, quickly followed by Mommy and Daddy.

It was a wonderful 4th of July. I love the tradition we have began of attending the St. Mary's Parade in the morning. As we were driving home, Daddy and I agreed that this is something we always want to do - even when the kiddos are grown and we are called Granny and Papa!

Wesley-isms

While at Home Depot today, Wesley accidentally scratched me. I brought it to his attention and this is what he said....

"Mommy, you need a band-aid brand bandaid. They heal the hurt faster!"

After a curious look, he says, "It's true. I saw it on TV!"

He then proceeds to sing the entire jingle!!

My Plans VS God's Plans

Before bed last night, I told daddy about all I wanted to do today - go swimming, get the tires rotated/balanced, and a visit to the playground for a picnic. After the chaotic days of Monday and Tuesday, I needed a day to chill and have fun with the kiddos....

Apparently God heard this and thought it was time to teach me a lesson...

2 weeks ago, our fridge/freezer went kaput. We fixed it, but knew the time was fast approaching when we would need to replace it...

That time came last night around 11. Daddy went to get his pre-midnight snack of ice cream and I could see him from the bedroom pressing buttons. This morning, when he woke at 5:30 for work, the first thing he did was go to the fridge and open the door. Between this and the sour face, I knew something was definitely wrong....

The fridge had died...

By the time he left for work at 6:15, we had a plan. I would go to Home Depot and check out appliances since they offered free delivery, set up, and haul away. We also knew that we wanted to replace everything as our dishwasher has not been available for almost a year and our oven was taking longer and longer to warm up.

At 7a, I trekked to Home Depot with my 3, sure that we would be in and out in less than an hour and home in plenty of time before my friends kiddos arrived at 9...

Again, God wanted to teach me a lesson...

The 4 of us arrived there around 7:20. We walked straight to the appliance section where I found plenty of vendors, but no employees. After 10 minutes of searching and waiting, not 1 but 2 employees came to my rescue. I told them I needed a fridge delivered today - tomorrow at the absolute latest. I wanted it to be white. I wanted to replace all of my appliances and needed them the same brand. And then I gave them my dimensions. This pair pulled out and measured every single fridge/freezer there and wouldn't you know that only 1 matched my criteria and dimensions! I said go for it and one of the guys left. The remaining guy, Sean, helped me pick out all of the other appliances. Numbers were plugged in and a quote was given. I thanked Sean and told him I would return shortly after I spoke to my husband...

It was now 9am and my friend was arriving at Home Depot with her kiddos...

I called daddy and we discussed everything. I now had second thoughts and daddy had concerns. I trekked back into the store and no sooner had I stepped foot in the Appliance section, was Sean back asking me what he could do to help. I told him my concern about the stove and daddy's concern about the fridge/freezer. We spoke for another minute and then I decided that maybe I would open the door to stainless steel. However, this would create the need for a new microwave as our current is white...

With Sean's help, we opened the door to stainless. We found one that could be delivered on Friday, but in the 5 minutes it took to call daddy, it was snatched! So we started over again...

Then again...

Then again...

Now it was 10:45. I was done. The kiddos were done. I am sure that Sean was done!

At this point, I had come around to the idea that it would be Monday before we had a fridge and we needed a way to limp along until then....

I had a light bulb moment and decided a deep freezer would be the answer!

Sean and I finally find everything and he creates an invoice. I call daddy for the final okay before making this gigantic purchase official. He gave it, I agreed. Sean smiled. We were done! It was 11:30, 30 minutes before Sean's 5 hour shift ended!

In the end, we got a heck of a deal. Between shopping the deals, asking for discounts, and thinking ahead, we bought just shy of $5000 worth of appliances for MUCH less. This included a $200 discount that paid for the entire deep freezer and gave us $50 left over!

I don't know what lesson God wanted to teach me, but I learned to keep my plans to myself and not tell anyone...that way He can't hear me ;-)

Daddy's Girl TuTu 5K

Many weeks ago, I came across an ad for a daddy/daughter 5k. The caveat was that they BOTH had to wear tu-tu's! After approaching Hannah, we chose to double team daddy - he had no choice but to agree!

Hannah and I had elaborate designs for the tu-tu's - they would be bright pink and purple with LOTS of glitter and ribbons/bows. However, once we arrived at Hobby Lobby and realized just how much work this was going to be, we quickly changed out mind and opted for the pre-rolled tulle and various ribbons! This greatly lessened our workload, but little did I know there was still a lot of work left!

Finally, 12 hours prior to the race, both Daddy and Hannah's Tu-Tu's were ready; tiara's, hair bows, and all!

When we arrived in Nocatee Saturday morning, our jaws hit the ground; there were dads in tiaras, boas, beautiful tu-tu's, etc! It was incredible to see what these dads did for their girls!

Both Hannah and Daddy had a great time and completed the 5k in 36minutes! However, regardless of their final time, or the fact that Hannah placed 3rd in her age group, they had a great time and made memories that will last a life time!

I am one proud mommy!